


Feed a Need

by charis2770



Category: Blood Bank (Webcomic), Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Aftercare, Alternate Dimensions, Anal Sex, As in it's sort of like it but not exactly, BDSM, Because we needed Sebastian wrecking pretty Shell so this happened, Blood Drinking, Bondage, Both Shell and Sebastian are starving, Caning, Cathartic Crying, Cock Rings, Consent, Crying, Dom/sub, Edging, Eric comes up with a very fun way to make everybody happy, Figging (Freeform), Flogging, He's on assignment, It has not gone well, Japanese Rope Bondage, Kinbaku, Kink Negotiation, M/M, Multi, Nipple Clamps, Oral Sex, Parallel Universes, Polyamory, Rough Sex, Sebastian visits Blood Bank 'Verse, Slash, Spanking, Spitroasting, Subspace, Suspension, Threesome, Whipping, demon contracts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-11-08 19:47:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 25,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11088669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charis2770/pseuds/charis2770
Summary: Sebastian Michaelis is sent by his current Master (it is not Ciel, this takes place some time before the events of Black Butler or else many years later, take your pick) who is a sorcerer/scientist and Monster Hunter. to the Blood Bank timeline (said Master is able to travel and send people across parallel worlds) to eliminate some of the evil vampires who are treating people like cattle. Sebastian is thrilled. His current Master is more savvy than most and doesn't let him hunt or feed very often. He is even forbidden by the terms of his contract from harming anyone other than evil beings unless it's in self defense. To his frustration, he arrives on the scene a few months after the events at the end of Blood Bank and thus doesn't find much prey.He happens upon Eric's home in the South by the sea and the two meet. Eric doesn't trust him at first, but as they talk, he begins to find Sebastian interesting. He's worried about Shell, who is still sticking to his vow not to drink human blood. Not even Eric's, who is only half human. Eric and his tragic past intrigue and amuse Sebastian, as does finding out that the most powerful vampire in the land is secretly a submissive masochist. Things happen.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fujoshi_Gal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fujoshi_Gal/gifts).



> This story is pure filthy, disgusting, mutually self-serving kink dreamed up by my enabling friend Fujoshi_gal who encouraged me to write it because there is just not enough fanfiction for Blood Bank, which is an amazing Manhua that actually manages to get BDSM right in the end. You should check it out. The kink takes a while to get healthy, for various reasons, but in the end it's SO well done. 
> 
> Basically we both really like making pretty boys cry buckets, and Shell is such a perfect choice. As for including Sebastian? Well, he's pretty too, and a sick fucker, so why the hell not? Chapter one is all set-up for the main event, but I promise that by the time I'm done, Shell won't even remember his own name.
> 
> You can still enjoy this crossover if you haven't read Blood Bank, though I highly recommend it. Basically Eric is Shell's half human/half vampire Dominant lover who Tops the fuck out of him, which is basically taboo in vampire society. Submissive vampires like Shell are considered "Abnormals." Eric is frustrated that Shell won't feed, even from willing donors. Sebastian is frustrated because his current Master won't let him feed often. Sebastian doesn't have to consume souls to feed, he can gain energy from pain and lust as well. Monogamy has never been much of a concept in their world, with a few exceptions that led to tragedy, so to Eric, allowing someone else to play with his pet when it means Shell will get a real feed that he desperately needs out of it is no big deal. Of course, the fact that he finds the Demon attractive as well doesn't hurt. This chapter is basically me doing a lot of dicking around with the plotlines and mechanics of both worlds to make this scene work. The next chapter will be Sebastian just positively destroying Shell's ass while his lover watches and supervises...and then possibly decides to participate, I haven't decided yet

The scent was like nothing he’d ever smelled before, nothing emitted by any human or vampire. It was a skin-ruffling, hair-raising, predator sort of smell, and since they were locked up safe in his recently-repaired home by the sea, his reaction to such a scent  _ should _ have been to stay right where he was, sitting comfortably in his chair by the empty fireplace (it was far too warm for a fire), the lamp over his shoulder illuminating his father’s journal. Because wolves and wild dogs didn’t attempt to invade well-lit, obviously inhabited houses.

 

But that wasn’t what he did. Leaping from his chair with preternatural speed, Eric snatched his shotgun from its rack on the wall, jacking a round into the chamber as he grabbed a long, sterling silver stiletto he also used as a letter opener off the desk while running for the door. Shell was asleep upstairs, worn out from their earlier bout of  _ entertainment _ as well as the heat of his home here in the South. He didn’t know why his instincts screamed at him that whatever approached was far more than a mere wolf pack, was something  _ sentient _ , but he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was, and he wanted to keep it as far away from Shell when the vampire wasn’t at full strength as possible. He flung open the door and stepped out onto the landing. It took his half-vampire eyes only a split second to adjust to the night. Besides, the sky was clear, and the moon was very near full. His electric blue eyes narrowed as he scanned the broad sea of fragrant white roses, his mother’s legacy. 

 

The source of the scent became instantly apparent. A man, exceedingly well-dressed in tailored charcoal slacks, a crisp white blouse with fluffy cravat, a neatly pressed black tail coat and neat white gloves. He was tall and slim, and even at several hundred feet away, Eric’s excellent vision could tell that he was quite attractive, and bore a pleasant smile upon his face. None of these factors did a single thing to settle his nerves. There was the man’s scent for one thing, if man he actually were. Then there was the fact that Eric was absolutely certain that when he’d opened the door and looked out, the man hadn’t been there. Not to mention the path he was treading through the sea of roses….wasn’t disturbing the flowers at all. Eric tucked the blade in his belt and levelled the shotgun at the intruder.

 

“I’m going to ask you not to come any closer,” he said calmly, although his mind was anything but calm. “I’d hate to have to stain my mother’s roses.”

 

The man stopped moving, tilting his head to the side as he regarded Eric with an amused smirk. A gloved hand dropped down and long, slender fingertips brushed delicately over the tops of a few of the flowers.

 

“Ah, these are your mother’s work? I’ve never seen their equal,” mused the stranger, still smiling. He lifted his head and inhaled. “Please put yourself at ease. You have nothing to fear from me. There’s nothing on this land or in your house that I’ve come here to...hunt.”

 

“What  _ are _ you?” demanded Eric, not lowering the shotgun, which seemed to surprise the stranger a little bit. “You’re not human  _ or _ vampire.”

 

The man’s eyebrows lifted now in genuine surprise. Eric let out a yelp of shock as, between one blink and the next, the elegantly-dressed stranger who smelled like danger but spoke like a gentleman quite suddenly appeared beside him on the landing, leaning against the porch railing and regarding him with great interest. His eyes were a deep, rich scarlet, like fine claret. Or blood.

 

“Now  _ how _ ,” mused the man, deftly lifting the gun from Eric’s stunned fingers with depressing ease, racking it open and expelling the shell into the palm of his hand before handing it back to him, “do you know that?”

 

“Because you don’t smell like one,” growled Eric, letting the gun drop to lean against the rail, whipping the silver blade out of his belt with all the supernatural speed his mother’s blood granted him. He stepped forward to crowd the stranger against the railing and pressed the tip of the knife to his pale, white throat above the line of his collar. The man hissed softly, his eyes flaring hot red for a moment.

 

“Interesting,” he said softly, regaining control of himself. “And yet,  _ you _ smell human. I can smell vampire  _ on _ you. My travels here have led me to believe that there isn’t any way for a vampire to transfer their gifts to a human….art is the term, is it not? Though the practice has been falling out of fashion in recent months. Lover is becoming the more acceptable term, I believe? Am I mistaken?”

 

“What are you, and why are you here?” snarled Eric between his teeth, ignoring the man’s comments. He could tell they were rhetorical anyway. The stranger knew very well that everything he said was true, and Eric had no intention of revealing his identity to this person at this point in the conversation. Not until he knew what the….man’s….intentions were.. Though he was believed to be dead, it wasn’t impossible that some powerful Lord or faction had hired some kind of hunter to make sure. The stranger sighed.

 

“I can see my presence so near your domicile makes you uncomfortable. I see a seating arrangement there on the beach. I don’t mind answering your questions, if you’d care to join me. My time here is nearly finished at any rate. I’ve found it….depressingly unfulfilling” he said. Eric frowned, then jerked his head towards the beach several yards away. Even if the stranger had no intention of telling him the truth, it would get him farther away from Shell, who really did need to sleep a few more hours if he was to be fully recovered. Or as fully recovered as he ever was these days. Even though humans were no longer farmed like animals for their blood, but could choose to sell it willingly to the blood banks or share it with a partner of choice, Shell still adhered to his pledge not to drink human blood again. Eric had tried convincing his lover that  _ his _ blood wasn’t human, not really, but Shell wouldn’t hear of it. Despite what many people thought, vampires could and did eat normal food, but it wasn’t nearly as nourishing to them as blood. Shell was one of the most powerful vampires in the world in terms of lands, holdings, and popularity, but no one knew how physically weak he chose to keep himself. 

 

Eric followed the elegant stranger to the small seating arrangement down near the water where he liked to sit and read, especially during the long days when Shell was away. He kept the knife clutched tightly in his fist, but he was beginning to be at least as curious as he was suspicious of this being. The man shook out the tails of his coat as he sat, then primly removed his gloves, one finger at a time. His nails were black, the skin of his hands almost unnaturally pale. Eric sat across from him cautiously, watching his every move.

 

“Now then,” said the man. “My name is Sebastian Michaelis. Or at least, that’s the name I generally use when I’m outside of my own realm. My real name would be unpronounceable to your tongue, I’m afraid”

 

“I’m...Eric,” said the other man a little reluctantly. Sebastian smiled politely and nodded. He seemed unsurprised by the lack of a surname. Eric had considered taking his mother’s in her honor, but the thought of associating himself with Brutal Bones in any way turned his stomach.

 

“Will you tell me why you can smell that I’m different?” asked Sebastian curiously, cocking his head to the side and leaning his cheek on his hand.

 

“I’ll think about it after you tell me what you are and what you’re doing here,” said Eric, knowing he sounded rude, but their safety and privacy at this place was too precious to him to risk. Sebastian sighed.

 

“Then I’ll ask you to bear with me until I finish. I give you my word that I mean you no harm. I’m unable to harm you, in fact, unless you attack me first. Will you do me that courtesy?”

 

“If all you do is talk, I’ll listen,” said Eric guardedly.

 

“My, you  _ are _ a careful one. You’d be an interesting challenge to do business with. Very well then. I’m not from your world. I was sent here by my current master. I’m a demon,” said Sebastian coolly. Eric’s eyebrows shot up.

 

“Demons aren’t real,” he said, feeling a little breathless.

 

“Oh, I assure you that we are. It’s simply that not many of us have bothered to meddle very much with this particular timeline. You were all doing such a very good job of tearing yourself to pieces without any interference that most of my kind considered your world to be boring. I suppose that since you’ve heard the term, there must be stories, and if there are stories, you must have had the occasional visitor over the centuries to give rise to them, but, in general, our kind have left this world to its own devices. Your vampires don’t exist in very many other timelines, and my kind tend to find them distasteful.”

 

“It seems to me demons and vampires would have a lot in common,” muttered Eric under his breath. To his surprise, Sebastian laughed.

 

“Perhaps that’s why we find each other so distasteful,” he agreed amiably. “Aside from that, it’s very difficult for a demon to travel across the boundaries from our own realm without being summoned. It happens from time to time, but it’s exceedingly rare.”

 

“Then what are you doing here?” demanded Eric, fingering the knife. Sebastian sighed again.

 

“As it happens, I’m currently under contract to a rather determined Hunter from a timeline quite similar to yours”

 

“Under...contract?” asked Eric hesitantly. This was all starting to seem extraordinarily surreal. Sebastian nodded. Neatly and methodically, he rolled back the left sleeve of his coat and shirt, then held out his arm. Emblazoned on the inside of his forearm was what looked very much like a tattoo. It was a detailed, dark purple circular sigil of some kind, filled with small symbols. Unlike a tattoo, however, the mark seemed to pulse and glow with some sort of faint energy.

 

“This is the seal of my contract with a human being. It allows me to move freely outside the demon realm. Demons crave this freedom, you see. Our home is not a pleasant place, and as long as we’re trapped there, we starve. When we take on a contract, although we are, to an extent, enslaved by the person who summoned us and invoked the contract, we’re able to have a taste of freedom, and we’re able to feed, at least until the terms of the contract are fulfilled.” The demon’s lips quirked in a sardonic smirk as he rolled his sleeve back down.

 

“What are the terms of the contract?” asked Eric, not sure he wanted to know the answer. Sebastian chuckled mirthlessly.

 

“Most humans are exceedingly foolish when it comes to negotiation. They offer up their souls to us without a second thought, when there’s something they want badly enough,” he said with a small sneer. A part of Eric bristled defensively, but he’d seen too much of human greed and idiocy in his life to be able to argue. The demon went on. “But the smart ones know that there are all manner of things a demon may find desirable. A wise person is perfectly capable of negotiating a contract with a demon that will leave them with their soul intact and both parties still satisfied. Souls are, of course, our most satisfying meals, but we’re bound by a great many rules. We can’t feed off the soul of someone we kill. That’s why the contract is required. We  _ can _ consume the soul of someone recently dead by other means, if we’re quick enough, though the reapers don’t like it much at all when we do that.”

 

“R-reapers?” whispered Eric.

 

“Well, yes. Those in charge of making sure the soul moves on,” said Sebastian with a wave of his hand. “I’ve tangled with a few. Honestly, consuming souls given by contract is really the only satisfying meal, but some of the reapers are such absurd stuffed shirts that I must admit I’ve stolen a few from them just to annoy them. For the most part though, I let them do their job. The other demons say I’ve grown too fond of humans over the millennia. I prefer to think that I find them interesting.”

 

“So...so what are the terms of your current….contract, then?” asked Eric cautiously. Sebastian pursed his lips in a small moue of distaste.

 

“I’m afraid it’s forbidden for me to reveal to you the details of the agreement between my current master and myself, but I can tell you why I’ve been sent here. The man to whom I’m contracted currently is something of an expert on magic as well as the hunting and extermination of what he considers to be abominations. He finds me to be a useful tool. Vampires exist in his world as well. There are many versions of reality. When he learned of this one, and the way the vampires had rounded up and enslaved humanity, treating them as cattle to be farmed, consumed, and culled when their numbers grew too great for their resources to support, he sent me here with instructions to...even the odds a bit. To pass judgment on those vampires who  _ he _ would deem too evil to be allowed to exist. Imagine my surprise when I arrived to discover that someone had already done my job for me.” Sebastian sighed again, staring out over the ocean as it lapped gently against the shore. “I did manage to scent out a very few depraved creatures, hiding in the shadows here and there, hunting and killing their newly freed cattle at every opportunity, but those were very meager meals.”

 

“Wait...you can drink from  _ vampires _ ?” cried Eric, lurching back in disgust. Sebastian glanced at him from the corners of his eyes, then chuckled.

 

“Oh. Oh, you are too amusing. No, my dear Eric. I don’t subsist on blood, though I’ll admit to enjoying the taste from time to time during certain...activities. Aside from that, I’d never feed from a vampire’s blood, it wouldn’t sustain me. I’ve told you that a demon’s most fulfilling meal is a human soul, but we can feed on other things as well, though to a somewhat lesser degree, and we need more of those things to be truly satiated. It depends upon the demon. We come in many types. Some can feed on hatred and jealousy. Others on fear and despair. Some can feed on disease and decay.”

 

“W-what about you?”

 

“Ah, me?” Sebastian’s lips curled into a small smile. “I can feed on pain and….lust.”

 

“As in, when you kill someone.”

 

Sebastian looked at him for several long moments. His smile grew, and Eric noticed that the demon had fangs not unlike a vampire’s. He found this didn’t bother him, and in spite of himself, he was growing to like the demon. The creature was unapologetic about his own nature. Eric found that the scent no longer bothered him either. True, Sebastian still smelled like a predator, but so did Shell. 

 

“Certainly then,” Sebastian agreed slowly, “but I find that a somewhat meager meal. You’ll have noticed, perhaps, that I didn’t say that I could feed off of death. If that were true, then the pain associated with it would taste much sweeter to me. I’m a demon of lust, friend Eric. I’ll apologize if it offends your sensibilities, but I find that lust and pain, when played hand in hand, are a most satisfying meal indeed. Almost as satisfying as consuming someone’s soul, because if one is good enough….and I am, I assure you...one can make it last much longer.” He lifted one shoulder in a small, self deprecating shrug. 

 

“My sensibilities aren’t offended at all,” murmured Eric, thinking of Shell and chuckling softly. He glanced at Sebastian out of the corners of his eyes. “So you came here under your master’s orders, hoping to be able to feed while you fulfilled his orders, only you discovered our little revolution.”

 

  
Yes, precisely,” said Sebastian with a frown. One of his hands clenched slowly into a fist.

 

“He doesn’t let you feed very often, this master of yours, I don’t think,” said Eric softly.

 

“I...am hungry more often than I am used to being when under contract,” admitted the demon reluctantly. “I was looking forward to this world.”

 

“Sorry,” said Eric. “That’s...kind of my fault, actually.”

 

“Yours? Really? And yet you live out here in this terribly lonely place rather than in some mansion, lauded as the hero and savior of the people?”

 

“It’s kind of a long story. A scapegoat was needed to prevent a bloodbath when things came to a head. Someone had to do it, and I...thought it had better be me than anyone else. You wanted to know why I could smell you? I’m only half human. My mother...she was a vampire,” Eric said softly. “She’s there, among the roses. Her father killed her for loving a human.”

 

“I didn’t think it was possible for a vampire and a human to bear a child,” said Sebastian in surprise.

 

“No one did,” said Eric. “I only found out what I was about two years ago. I knew vampire pheromones didn’t work on me, but I didn’t know why. The reason you can smell vampire on me is partly because of my blood, but it’s also partly because my lover is a vampire. He and I, we brought down the system together.” He smiled fondly, thinking of Shell.

 

“A vampire went against his own kind?”

 

“Shell’s always been...different. He always hated how other vampires treated humans. It made him hate what he was. Vampires are supposed to be dominant. They kept humans as submissive little pets. That’s where the term ‘art’ came from. Vampires like Shell, who felt the opposite, were considered abnormal, to the point that if their feelings were discovered, their lives would be in danger. That he was the heir of one of the great Lords only made it worse for him.”

 

Sebastian leaned forward in his chair, looking fascinated.

 

“I’ve learned quite a lot in my time here. So you’re the vile halfblood who created the poison that broke the vampires’ control over the humans?”

 

“Well, it was really someone else, but I took credit for it so the humans wouldn’t blame the wrong people. I knew that the only way for society to survive was for humans and vampires to start to work together. So I took credit for it. And Shell took credit for killing me. That’s why I live out here on my own, so no one will know I survived.” He reached in his pocket and drew out the dented plate of iron he’d placed over his heart that day, whispering in Shell’s ear that he trusted him. His thumb rubbed back and forth over the deep indentation where the bullet had struck true. 

 

“Your lover is  _ Shell Overlord _ ?” said Sebastian, looking delighted. Eric’s mouth quirked in a small grin and he nodded. “The mighty Shell Overlord who saved the world, to hear people in his part of it speak of it, brought peace to the land, created equality between humans and vampires with his iron hand of justice? The most powerful vampire this world has ever known?”

 

“That’s the one,” said Eric cheerfully, liking the demon more every second as Sebastian’s eyes began to sparkle with delight, clearly quick to grasp the irony of the situation.

 

“And he’s what your people call ‘an abnormal’?”

 

“He’s asleep in the house because he’s too worn out to move at the moment,” said Eric, hiding a grin behind his hand.

 

“But no one knows this?”

 

“No.” Eric frowned a little. “He’d announce it to the world, and hang the consequences. Shell’s never been ashamed of what he wants, or who he is. That was me, in the beginning. I didn’t want it to get us killed. Now I won’t let him come out because his position still isn’t quite secure enough. He’s been helping facilitate the changeover in other districts to a free market system the same way it works in his territory, and a lot of vampires aren’t happy about it. If they knew about his...preferences...they might try to refuse the change by arguing that he’d only given in to the ‘cattle’ because of his weakness, and there are some out there who might even try a takeover. His power has nothing to do with that, of course, but he wouldn’t want more bloodshed because of him. He settles for making it safe for others like him to be more public with their tastes, without fear of reprisal. His best friend, the vampire who makes the compound that enables humans to resist vampire pheromones, is like him, and he’s about as public as you can get.” Eric shook his head with a short laugh, thinking about Reign. “But for now, it’s just safer for everyone to believe that Shell is just as dominant as his father, and all the Overlords before him. It doesn’t change anything for us.”

 

“And yet, you’re still worried about him,” said Sebastian keenly, leaning forward with his chin propped on his fist. Eric leaned away from him. This demon was too perceptive by half.

 

“Not for the reason you probably think. Shell’s smart, and he’s doing an amazing job. I think he’ll have every human in all the territories in this hemisphere free within the year, and he doesn’t need my help to do it.”

 

“Then what has you so worried? There’s no sense in lying about it. I can smell it on you,” said Sebastian, his smile showing a hint of sharp teeth. For a moment, Eric bristled with indignation. What business was it of this stranger’s? But then, there was no one else he could talk to about it, and discussing it with Shell had gotten him exactly nowhere. He let his breath out on a long sigh, his shoulders slumping.

 

“Shell made a vow a long time ago to never again drink human blood, and he’s stuck to that vow, even though no blood is taken from humans against their will in his territory anymore. He won’t even feed from me, and I’m only half human,” he said, unable to hide the low growl of frustrated anger in his voice.

 

“And so he exists as I do...for now, at any rate….subsisting on meager sustenance rather than true nourishment,” nodded the demon. Eric blinked in surprise at the tone of understanding in the creature’s voice. Because for all that this Sebastian looked very much like an elegant, aristocratic and admittedly very attractive man, he was no more human than the vampires who had crushed the humans of Eric’s world under their heels for so many years. The ruby gleam of his eyes gave away his inhumanity in the same way Shell’s golden, slit-pupiled irises betrayed his bestial nature. And yet, Shell was still one of the best people Eric had ever known. Honest, generous to a fault, brave and self-sacrificing, willing to give his life to change the evils wrought by others of his kind and even his own family if it had been necessary. Eric had no illusions that this newcomer was anything like as altruistic as his lover. The demon made no apologies that he fed on human souls, but somehow his honesty about it, and that fact that there were rules involved, that it was the greed or desperation or desires of those humans that led them to sell their souls to the demon and that he could only take them once he’d fulfilled a sworn contract to them didn’t fill Eric with a lot of sympathy for the demon’s dinners. He wasn’t really sure he understood the part about stealing the newly dead from those beings he referred to as reapers, but after everything he and Shell had been through by now, he honestly wasn’t sure he could dredge up a lot of care for what happened to someone who’d already died anyway. 

 

Hunger though...hunger was something he could sympathize with. And Sebastian was a good conversationalist, which wasn’t something Eric had encountered much of over the past year. It gave him a small pang of regret that the demon said he’d be moving on from this world soon, there being nothing for him to do to help fulfill his contract. For some reason, he wished there was some way he could offer this Sebastian Michaelis more of a meal before he had to go….

 

His fingers stilled on the heavy iron metal in his hands. It dropped to the surface of the small table that sat between the two chairs on the small strand of beach with a clatter. 

 

“Friend Eric, is something wrong?” asked Sebastian curiously. Eric raised his head and eyed the demon keenly. Sebastian’s head reared back a bit and his pupils slitted at the sight of the half-vampire’s eyes glowing bright blue. Eric huffed ruefully and blinked, calming himself. 

 

“Sorry. I forget sometimes they do that when I get excited. It’s….Hm. Well, I exaggerated a little when I said Shell was sleeping because I’d worn him out,” Eric said quietly, deciding it would probably be better to backtrack a little rather than blurt out crazy suggestions to a virtual stranger.

 

“Oh?” said Sebastian politely.

 

“It’s really the heat here. Vampires prefer the cold. They can’t tolerate the heat for long. That’s part of why I’m relatively safe here. I’m strong enough to defend myself from any humans, and almost no sane vampire would venture this far South where it’s so warm during the day. Shell though, he loves me.”

 

“He wouldn’t be the first to do rather mad things for the sake of love,” mused Sebastian.

 

“He’s all right as long as he doesn’t stay too long, and as long as we reserve our more strenuous activities for night time when it’s cooler. But the truth is, even though my mother was a vampire, I’ll never be strong enough to truly give him the kind of intensity I know his heart desires. His feelings for me make up for it, but I’d have to be blind not to see that his body always craves more,” admitted Eric with regret. It was his only regret, really. He wasn’t sorry for the sacrifice he’d made. It had been worth it. Even if he and Shell couldn’t be together all the time, he still couldn’t be sorry for the choice he’d made that day. He definitely wasn’t sorry for taking Shell back even though he’d told the young Overlord to stay away from him, that they’d faced the dangers of Jack and Humpty Dumpty’s mad plans together and succeeded, side by side. And now that he’d come to terms with the things they shared, the desires in which they indulged, he regretted none of that either. There had been a point when he’d been disgusted with himself for enjoying it, thinking it meant there was something wrong with him, but when Shell looked at him with such trust in his eyes, he’d learned in the end to trust himself as well. The only thing he did regret was that with Shell’s supernatural, vampire strength and resilience, Eric would never be able to give him the true extent of erotic torment his lover actually desired, even though Shell swore every time that everything they did together was perfect. 

 

“Ah. Combined with what I learned of the two of you in my travels,” murmured the demon softly, gazing once again out over the water, “....a touching story. And one to which there is a great deal more, I imagine.”

 

“I tried living in the past for a while,” replied Eric. “I don’t do that anymore.”

 

“Mm. That makes you a wiser man than most, even if most of your world believes you to be a lesser one.”

 

“Can demons take on more than one contract at a time?” asked Eric abruptly. Sebastian raised his eyebrows at the change in subject.

 

“In general, no,” he admitted. “A demonic seal is binding. It...prevents the binding of another. A precaution against conflict of interest. May I ask why?”

 

“Until I met you, I didn’t believe your kind existed. I know nothing of demons but what I’ve heard in tales, and none of them are...pleasant. I believe you when you say there are rules. That your contract is binding. You seem nice enough, but I have a feeling it’s because you choose to. I don’t think I’d be able to trust your word without a contract to bind it.” Eric frowned in disappointment. 

 

“You are a smart man, sir. A demon’s word, without a contract, is as good as it wishes it to be. And that depends entirely upon what is in it for us. I don’t know what you were thinking of offering me, but do remember that my current contract forbids me from harming anyone….or any _ thing _ which isn’t evil unless it attacks me first.”

 

Eric perked up for a moment, but then shook his head, sinking back in his chair. 

 

“No….I don’t think so. That still leaves you too much leeway for what I had in mind. I gave him my word that he’d always be safe, and I’ll never betray his trust.”

 

Sebastian laughed with delight.

 

“Oh, I  _ like _ you. You’re not easy to trick, and most are, especially when they want something from me. And you do want something from me, I think.”

 

“Just so you know, there’s as much in it for you too,” said Eric.

 

“Is there now? Then I am intrigued. Well then, I’ll let you in on a secret that very few people know. Since I’ll be leaving soon at any rate, it won’t matter in the long run. My kind cannot serve two masters, but we may enter into a lesser agreement that is still binding. A blood oath. Call it a short-term contract if you like. Terms are agreed upon by both parties, the agreement signed in blood. I  _ could _ probably find a way to break it if I went to a lot of trouble, but I don’t have that much time, and I’m bound not to do you or your lover harm anyway, so it hardly seems worth the effort...especially if what you have in mind really is as beneficial to me as it is to you as you claim. It’s up to you, of course.” The demon leaned back in his seat and pressed his fingertips together under his chin, waiting patiently with a faint smile playing at the corners of his mouth. 

 

“I have a question first.”

 

“Very well.”

 

“You said you’d never drink a vampire’s blood because it couldn’t sustain you, aside from the fact that blood isn’t really a food source for you. But could a vampire feed from you?”

 

The demon’s eyes flared with fire and his wicked smile flashed a sharp white fang.

 

“A few drops of demon blood are as the finest banquet and the most potent…. _ enhancement _ drug rolled into one for a vampire. It’s one of the reason our kinds don’t tend to get along. They exhibit a distressing tendency to wish to drain us dry and we prefer to prevent them from doing so. Why?”

 

“Then….this is what I want to offer you, and give to Shell. Both of you are hungry. He needs blood, but won’t drink from humans. You’re not human. I don’t have any souls to offer you, but you said you can feed off of pain and lust, is that right?”

 

“Correct,” said Sebastian, his eyes beginning to gleam even hotter.

 

“Well, Shell craves both of those things like a thirsting man lost in the desert, and no matter how loyally he denies it, I don’t have the physical strength to give it to him to the degree that would truly  _ satiate _ him. If you were sent here to kill vampires, then I have a feeling you  _ do _ . I also assume that a demon of lust and pain must also enjoy dealing out both things if he also enjoys feeding off them.”

 

“Ohh, you’ve  _ no _ idea,” purred Sebastian. 

 

“Are you good at it?”

 

“Quite.”

 

“Then, if this blood oath thing is real, what I’d be offering you is...essentially a meal for a meal. You feed Shell your blood, and I’ll allow you to feed from him in the way both of you will enjoy if you’ll give me your oath that you’ll make sure he  _ does _ enjoy it, and that you don’t hurt him more than I’m willing to have him hurt. I’ve given him a word to use if I ever go too far with him. He’s never used it with me, probably because it’s absurd to even imagine him ever needing to. I believe you could make him need to use it easily. Part of your oath will be that you’ll endeavor  _ not _ to, and another part will be that if he does use it, you’ll stop immediately, and that I’ll be there the entire time to make sure both of you stick to your parts of the agreement.”

 

Sebastian’s eyes widened a little in surprise.

 

“You’d share your lover with another? And a demon at that?” he asked, sounding genuinely bemused. Eric frowned again.

 

“Wait, are...are demons….monogamous or something? Shit, I didn’t think about that. Sorry. Just forget it,” he muttered. Sebastian laughed.

 

“ _ Demons _ ,” he chuckled, and Eric couldn’t help noticing how deep and rich his laugh was, “the ones who are capable of higher reason, at any rate, and actually equipped for it in any of their forms, are only monogamous if it is specified under the terms of a contract, which I myself try to avoid when at all possible, considering my nature. Humans, on the other hand, I have found over my centuries of dealing with them, have a much stronger tendency to be. You surprised me, that is all.”

 

“I’m also not exactly human,” Eric reminded him. “Monogamy’s not much of a concept in our world. I guess maybe it is for some humans? I don’t know. While I was living and working as one, at the bank, all I did was work. I didn’t have friends, or intimate relationships. My parents tried to run away together and make a life that was just for them. Well, just for us, I suppose, though I don’t remember much of it. It got them both killed. For….I don’t even know how many years...the ultimate dream for most humans was to get noticed by a rich vampire, to get taken into their household, either as a servant or, as the ultimate fantasy, to be an art. Until they actually became one, nobody ever knew what it’d really mean. That they’d be a possession, a plaything to be bled and fucked and shared and punished for the slightest mistake or just because their Master felt like it, especially if it was at one of their social events so they could show off how powerful they were and how much control they had over their pets. I love Shell. He may have understood a lot more about love a lot sooner than I did, but for me, it’s not about being the only hands that ever touch him, especially if there’s something he needs that I can’t give him. Not only does he need to feed but refuses to, he’s under a lot of stress. Most vampires are dominant by nature, so pushing others of their kind to convert their territories to Shell’s model would be a lot about just...looking them in the eye and making sure they blink first. Shell’s a submissive vampire, but he’s still doing that, and he’s doing it really well. When he’s here with me is the only time he can really show his true self….until this is finished once and for all, and he  _ is _ close, but still….he’s carrying a lot of stress.”

 

“And, I assume  _ that  _  part works the same here as in other places I’ve been,” muses Sebastian. “As submissive to you, he counts on you to relieve that stress.”

 

“Exactly so. And for several months now, I’ve grown more and more sure that I’m only able to relieve  _ some _ of it. Shell dreams about being completely broken down. He likes a bit of humiliation, as long as it isn’t cruel, but he  _ loves _ ...no, he  _ needs _ punishment. He wants it until he’s nothing but a quivering pile of raw nerves and he can’t scream anymore. And he’s so much physically stronger than I am that I’ll never be able to truly give him that. Most of the time it’s enough for both of us, but I can see how tired he is. The last couple of visits, even though I know Shell loves to cry...and does it at the drop of a hat, honestly...I’ve seen frustration in those tears along with the pain and pleasure that he wants, and I don’t like it.”

 

“Vampires here are born, not turned, correct?”

 

“What does that mean?” asked Eric, confused by the term. Sebastian shook his head. His midnight black hair brushed against his alabaster cheek.

 

“It doesn’t matter. I thought so. What does he look like, your Shell Overlord?” Eric blinked at the change in subject, then smirked. A demon with particular tastes? It seemed a little surprising, considering the few stories and legends about demons he’d heard in his life.

 

“Fair blond hair, about shoulder length now, though it was to his chin when I met him. He’s been growing it out because I mentioned that it was starting to get long and that I liked it. It has a tendency to curl a little on the ends. Eyes the color of gold gemstones. The body of an eighteen or nineteen year old boy….he looks several years younger than me even though he’s almost a hundred years older. Vampires age very slowly. The first time I saw him, even though I pretty much hated and mistrusted all vampires on instinct, I thought he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I guess that was why I didn’t turn him down. Part of it anyway. I mean, at the time, I belonged to him, so I didn’t really have the right to say no, even though what he was revealing to me about himself gave me a lot of leverage over him. I was angry at him for putting me in such a position, but I couldn’t get past the thought of wondering what he’d look like on his knees at my feet, begging. For whatever I wanted to give him.”

 

“And how does he look, doing that?” inquired the demon. Just the tip of his very red tongue slipped out to wet his lips.

 

“Gorgeous,” murmured Eric, thinking about Shell with a decidedly dirty smile on his face. “Depraved. Unbelievably fuckable. Like a damn fallen angel, if such things exist and they’re so pretty you want to wreck them. Hell, yesterday I thought demons weren’t real, so maybe angels are too.”

 

“Mm. They do exist. I’ve met a few. Selfish pricks, for the most part, but they are very nice to look at.”

 

Eric shook his head in amazement and rubbed his temples with his fingertips. All this new information was starting to give him a headache.

 

“I really don’t think I needed to know that. Look, the point is that up until recently, even if I haven’t been able to send him home well-fed and at full strength, I’ve been able to send him back with a clear head and a lighter heart. The past couple of months I don’t think I’ve even been doing that. Why does it make any difference to you, anyway? Shouldn’t a demon….not care about stuff like that?”

 

“Call it intellectual curiosity, if you like. That, and, like you, I prefer to understand what I’m getting myself into. I find jealous lovers tiresome to deal with. If I’m going to even consider giving up something as valuable as my own blood in exchange for a partial meal, then I want to know what I’m getting myself into...and why. I think you’re interesting, and your story hasn’t bored me. I want to see him,” said Sebastian, rising from his chair and pocketing his gloves.

 

“He’s sleeping,” replied Eric, not sure why he wasn’t offended by the other’s answer. Maybe it was because he’d lived a lie for so much of his life, and been immersed in a culture and civilization based almost entirely on lies and deception that he just found the demon’s honesty refreshing. “Can you be quiet?” Sebastian laughed.

 

“My dear boy, it will be as though my feet aren’t even touching the ground.”

 

****

 

Why the man couldn’t have just said he meant his feet  _ literally _ didn’t have to touch the ground, Eric didn’t know, as he glanced behind him, leading the way into the house. He’d learned where all the squeaky floorboards were after all this time, so he could move about the house while Shell slept without disturbing him, but as near as he could tell, Sebastian’s fancy boots with their high shine and spotless white spats really did seem to be floating about an inch above the floor, for all that it looked as though he was walking normally. Shaking his head, he led the way up the stairs to his bedroom. Peering through the crack in the door to see whether Shell was indeed still asleep, he nodded once. Turning back to the demon over his shoulder, he put a finger to his lips and eased the door open. Sebastian moved past him and silently into the room, then came to an abrupt halt beside the bed which held the recumbent, sleeping form of Shell Overlord. 

 

Eric wondered for a moment if it was really fair to Shell to be planning all this behind his back, planning to hand him over to another person to dominate him in the way he craved so badly, but at the same time, Eric knew his lover. If Shell were made a part of the negotiations, he’d have too much time to come up with excuses. His loyalty to Eric would never let him admit that their play wasn’t always intense enough for him. Shell was one of the most honest beings Eric had ever met. One of the only ones, really, but he knew Shell would lie about this one thing even with a gun to his head. Shell’s own insecurities wouldn’t allow him to believe that Eric could handle the truth and not let it hurt him. The only way it was hurting him was in seeing Shell in so much pain. Hungry all the time, so much responsibility heaped upon his young shoulders, coming to his lover to take all of it away for a little while. To strip him of the mask he was forced to wear even as he stripped him of those fancy clothes. To drive away his insecurities and worries and stress for a while and allow him to just feel. To accept the gift of his submission without thinking less of him for it. Shell’s trust made Eric want to fall to his knees and weep with gratitude sometimes. 

 

It wasn’t about the sexual aspect of their relationship. Eric wasn’t interested in anyone but Shell, but that was because of everything else about him. Sex had never been very important to Eric. Before he’d met Shell, he’d occasionally wondered if there might be something wrong with him in that way, or if he was simply asexual, but he understood now that it had simply taken someone like Shell to unlock his desires. Though he did have to admit that there was something awfully compelling about this stranger, this demon calling himself Sebastian Michaelis, that he might not mind exploring a little further if circumstances permitted. That, though, was a lot less important to Eric than making sure that Shell got what he needed. He knew that a couple of the alliances Shell had made over the past year had required him to literally seduce another powerful vampire over to his way of thinking. Shell had been so torn up about it, coming to Eric already in tears, begging to be punished for even considering such a thing, even though the other party had made it clear to him that further talks were hinged upon access to Shell’s lovely self. He’d been shocked when Eric had only laughed.

 

“Why are you so upset,” he’d asked gently, tugging Shell to his feet. “So Shade Black says he’ll sign your treaty in exchange for a night with you? That’s a lot easier sell than some of the others you’ve had to make in the past. He doesn’t want to hurt you, does he?”

 

“Well...no,” Shell had said, looking confused and fidgeting. “He….he wants me to top, actually. Everyone assumes Reign and I have that sort of relationship since he came out publicly as Abnormal, and he said he wants to find out what I have in my pants that can make a Fear lord purr.”

 

“So what’s the problem?”

 

“Eric,” Shell had cried, “I’ll...I’ll have to…”

 

“To fuck someone else, yeah, I got that part. Oh. Can you not….um….do it, if you’re not being topped? I’m sorry, Shell, I didn’t mean to be insensitive,” Eric had said, feeling a pang that he might have hurt his lover’s feelings. Shell had growled in frustration.

 

“Of course I can. I’ve done it before. I don’t  _ care _ for it, but I can be just as convincing as I need to be.”

 

“Oh. Good. That’s all right then.”

 

“You don’t care that I’m talking about fucking another person?” Shell had yelped. Eric had seen fresh tears welling up in those beautiful eyes and taken Shell in his arms.

 

“Shell. Stop. Are you going to leave me for this bastard?” He’d asked in a soothing tone.

 

“What?! Of course not! He’s attractive enough, but he’s not  _ you. _ ”

 

“Are you going to come back to me and strip off all your fancy Overlord trappings and get on your knees and suck my cock when I tell you to like a good boy, and let me tie you to the cross in the basement and make you scream just like always on your next visit?” Eric had purred into his ear, grinning when he felt Shell’s knees shake just a little.

 

“Ngh...Of...of course I am. That’s what I’ll always want,” Shell had whispered.

 

“Shell, I love you. Nothing’s going to change that. If both of us had to fuck every other vampire in the hemisphere to make the changes we’re trying to make...well, aside from me having to come back from the dead to do it, it would be worth it. Look at it this way. If I had to have sex with someone else to save lives, make things safe for the people I was trying to protect, and there really wasn’t any other way to do it….would you be mad at me?”

 

“Oh….no. No, I wouldn’t.”

 

 

“There, you see. Sex between you and me, it’s special, because of the way we feel about each other. Sex between either of us and anybody else? Maybe it’s business. Maybe someday we’ll even want to explore a little fun with someone else, fulfill some kind of fantasy, and both of those things will be okay, because they can’t touch what’s important. Do you see? Loyalty and faithfulness is in the heart, not in physical use of the body. Secure your alliance, then come back to me and I’ll punish you for feeling guilty about it until you can’t remember your own name,” he’d said. Shell had whimpered and sagged into his arms. Then, after some time spent in bed that night with Eric describing in excruciating detail how he imagined Shell would look squirming on someone else’s cock and then forcibly demonstrating how  _ not _ turned-off he was by the thought, Shell had both pounced on him with startlingly renewed energy even though they’d already fucked less than an hour before, and returned the following month after his successful acquisition of his new ally and described the whole encounter to his lover and master while Eric worked him over with the stiff new riding crop Shell had brought along as a gift. Though it didn’t come anywhere near matching Shell’s play room in the basement of his mansion back home, the dungeon room Eric was working on during Shell’s absences was coming along nicely, and Shell almost always brought a new toy or two to add to it every time he visited. With nothing but time on his hands most days, Eric was becoming fairly adept at both woodworking and leatherwork, hobbies helped along considerably by a wealthy lover with an airship who also thrilled at the idea of what the carpentry tools, instructional books, beautifully made masterwork leathercraft tools, perfectly cured hides of thick, soft leather and small boxes of shiny steel bolts and hooks and various other steel hardware that he delivered would be transformed into upon his next visit.

 

Eric smiled briefly at Shell’s sleeping form. He looked so young when sleeping; the small lines of strain smoothed away from his boyish features. His sunny hair lay tousled across the pillow, his cheeks flushed a warm rosy color in contrast to the rest of his porcelain skin. One fang caught on his bottom lip where it stuck out in a tiny pout, mouth still kiss-swollen from the evening’s lovemaking. It was too warm for the vampire to want blankets, and the light sheet Eric had tucked around him was now shoved down so that it barely covered his hips. His slender body looked as though it had been carved from flawless marble, pale and completely unblemished save for the small glint of silver rings piercing his pale pink nipples. Shell’s vampire body healed every injury, from the smallest scrape to a grievous wound that would have killed a human instantly without leaving a single mark behind, given enough time and depending on the severity. Shell would always mourn the fact that the marks his lover painted on his body with loving brutality would fade within hours, but Eric secretly loved the thrill of peeling away the layers of Shell’s custom-tailored clothing every time to find him pale and perfect beneath them, a fresh and unmarked canvas every time.

 

He flicked his gaze to the demon who stood over Shell, silently watching him sleep. He didn’t notice that Sebastian hadn’t been breathing at all this whole time until he heard the soft hiss of a slow inhale. Then the man turned and moved past Eric, out of the room, inclining his head for him to follow. When they reached the ground floor, Sebastian turned to face him, his eyes gleaming like rubies held up in front of a bright light.

 

“Name your conditions,” purred the demon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian and Eric come to terms. Shell wakes up. Eric has some convincing to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sighs* I never actually mean for this to happen. I don't start out to write short stories that turn into books. I do seem to be helpless to prevent it though. This time I've managed to write 16 pages about kink negotiation and character exposition. 
> 
> And...while I'm making light of it, sort of, communication and negotiation is SO important. I honestly cannot stress how much. Especially when it comes to bringing an outsider into an existing relationship of ANY kind. There is so much potential for misunderstanding. It's so easy to accidentally plant tiny seeds of doubt and resentment that you may not even notice at the time...then everybody has a great time and you wonder three months later why you're miserable. 
> 
> Because, when it comes to BDSM, everyone's needs are different. It's great when both partners in a 2-person relationship are matched well in what they like and want and need out of it, but it's SO common to have SOMEthing that one or the other person needs that ends up not being met. Sometimes that's just miscommunication, but really often it's because the other person just can't give them that thing, for any number of reasons. And that's rough, especially if you're really in synch in a lot of other ways. 
> 
> Bringing in a third, either on occasion or long-term (even permanently) isn't for everyone. But it can be the perfect answer. I personally really support poly relationships. I'm not a jealous person in the least. I think it's vanishingly unlikely for one single person to meet ALL of one other person's needs. I think if you have someone else in the mix, it becomes exponentially more likely that more people get what they need more often. I know this from experience. Current experience. But I also know from past experience that if you don't talk about everything a LOT....excessively, I'm serious; if you're not completely honest, if you repress any tiny doubts or concerns, things are very damn likely to go pear shaped in a big way. Talk. Speak up about what you need and what you feel, whether your relationships are monogamous or poly, because BDSM is, at its core and in its ideals, about trust.
> 
> Also, I'm sorry there's still not any real filth in this chapter. But I promise, in the next one, sweet baby Shell gonn' get rekt.

The young vampire Lord was certainly pretty enough. Beautiful, really. Pale and blond with just a hint of color in his cheeks and lips. It looked as though he’d blush beautifully. He might be over a hundred years old, but didn’t appear a day over 18, if that. His body was just the kind the demon liked as well. Firm in all the right places, skin that looked taut but soft, and without blemish...the kind that reddened and bruised beautifully. 

 

But none of those were the reasons Sebastian was willing to agree to whatever terms Eric dictated. Vampires in this reality were different than in some others. Different from the myths surrounding them in others. Vampirism here, from what he’d been able to learn during his travels through this land searching for prey, was the result of some sort of mutated virus. They weren’t undead creatures. More of them couldn’t be made by draining a human and feeding them a vampire’s blood. They were born in the regular way, the offspring of two vampires. Something in the virus gave them their powers, as well as their thirst for human blood. Years of being the alpha species and in possession of pheromones that gave them effortless influence over normal human beings had corrupted most of them into greedy, selfish, power-hungry monsters, not the lack of souls. 

 

And never, in all his years, had the demon ever encountered a scent as intoxicating as that of Shell’s uncorrupted soul; bright and pure and exquisite on the back of his tongue as he breathed in the sleeping vampire’s essence. His fangs elongated in his jaw, saliva pooling in his mouth at that scent. Without a shred of proof, Sebastian knew that Shell’s lust and pain would provide him with a meal more satisfying even than most human souls he’d consumed in his very long life. It would be more than worth allowing the young vampire to bite him. He anticipated that allowing Shell to drink a little of his blood would only add spice to the meal. Some vampires gave pleasure with their bites. Some could only do so through the influence of the pheromones they gave off, which would have no influence over him. Others simply hurt. It mattered little to the demon. Pleasure or pain suited him equally, as he enjoyed both. And with the power his blood would grant the hungry vampire, Shell would be able to endure the kind of play that so far Sebastian had only found other demons or Reapers could tolerate. Not that he hadn’t enjoyed drinking down the results of a few of those dalliances in his time, but a pure soul powerful enough to take what the demon could dish out and not break? It would be delicious.

 

He sat down with Eric and listened as the young man, who was certainly not without appeal of his own, laid out the terms of their agreement, and nodded his acceptance of all of it. Shell would have the ability to put a stop to things at any time, by using he and his master’s prearranged code word. 

 

“We’ll have to work fast to convince him to go along with this or he’s pretty likely to use it before things even get started, but I think it won’t be too hard to do. He’s really hungry, and we’ve already talked before about bringing in another temporary partner to play with a couple of times, when I had to convince him it was okay for him to have to seduce another Lord to go along with his new free market system. It helps that he’s pretty conditioned to obey me by now. I don’t like using that, but I like even less that he’s facing opposition at less than full strength. If he ever has to actually physically fight anyone to get them to sign his accords, he’ll lose, and I won’t be there to help him,” said Eric, frowning as he wrote on the piece of paper he’d pulled out of his desk. Sebastian smirked.

 

“You’ll get no judgment from me,” he said carelessly. “I may be a selfish creature, but I understand how these relationships work. It is your job to take care of his needs. He’s refusing to take care of himself. If you are to do your job, sometimes you must be willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that he’s healthy.”

 

This was apparently the right thing to say, as Eric nodded and went on with his conditions.

 

“I don’t know what he can take, not the full extent, because I’ve never been able to push him that far. He doesn’t have the best sense of self preservation, especially when he’s spaced out, so you’ll also agree to stop if  _ I _ tell you to.”

 

“Agreed.”

 

“I’ve been building us a play room, and there’s nothing in there that he doesn’t like, so you can use any of the toys we have on him, and any of the….furniture. He likes being bound, but he doesn’t need it, if you want him free so you can move him around. He likes a little humiliation, but not cruelty. For example, you can call him a slut and tease him about how dirty he is, how bad he wants it, make him kneel for you, make him beg for things, push him down and manhandle him, but you can’t spit on him or slap him or call him names that are meant to be cruel, anything that’s meant to shame him or make him feel bad. I...I did some of those things to him at first, and he took them because he wanted so badly to be dominated that he was willing to accept it, and because he hated what he was so much that part of him thought he deserved it. He  _ does _ deserve it, but because he deserves to be happy, and feel fulfilled, not because he’s a bad person. If you make him feel shitty, I’ll put a stop to it,” said Eric sternly, his eyes flashing electric blue in the dim light of the study, protectiveness radiating off him in waves.

 

“You needn’t worry about that. If I’m to be able to feed of him in any satisfying way, I need him to be truly aroused, not ashamed,” said Sebastian. He was actually having to call on his endless reserves of patience that he usually didn’t need, for Eric to get on with it, but that same patience told him he couldn’t rush this or Eric would call this off. Not a flicker of impatience showed on the beautiful face that hid the monster inside, no matter how it salivated to be se free.

 

“He likes the whips and floggers on his back, but he likes being spanked, and hit on his ass and on his legs a little the most. He likes the illusion of being punished for being a bad boy, though when it’s for real, he always feels horribly guilty. I don’t want him to feel too much of that from you. It’s not your job. He likes having his mouth fucked, and you don’t have to worry much about choking him. He likes that too, as long as you don’t cut off his airflow for too long. He doesn’t have a gag reflex. Vampires can unhinge their jaws. And he doesn’t need much preparation to be fucked, unless you’re unnaturally big. Just lubrication. He likes it to hurt a little.”

 

“How enticing,” murmured Sebastian in a calm voice, running the tip of his tongue over his fangs behind closed lips.

 

“Shell cries pretty easily. That’s not a gauge of whether he likes something or not. He’ll tell you, or I will, if something is too much. You don’t need to use his tears or the sounds he makes as a gauge. Usually, the harder he cries and the louder he screams, the more he likes what’s going on.”

 

“Marvellous,” mused sebastian, sitting back in the chair Eric had offered him, facing the desk, with all the appearance of nonchalance, while inside the demon salivated and snarled for the other man to  _ get on with it. _ Eric didn’t though.Despite the lingering, compelling taste of Shell’s essence on the back of his tongue, Sebastian had to admire the half-vampire. He was meticulous in the wording of the contract. He left nothing to chance, pausing now and then as he wrote to study Sebastian keenly, even remembering to add a clause that the demon was not allowed to do anything to Eric either without his express consent. Watching, listening and nodding in the appropriate places, Sebastian only grew more excited on the inside. It was rare to meet such a worthy adversary when it came to negotiation. Usually people left him plenty of giant loopholes he could manipulate to his liking during negotiations but this man was admirably careful for someone who didn’t truly know much about demonic nature. The resulting contract was almost impeccably airtight. Normally, the constraints of this would have been something of an irritation to Sebastian, but this time he didn’t find it so. Occasionally, especially when the terms of the agreement related to one of his personal interests as this one did, being forced to truly play by the rules was just as exciting to the demon as manipulating the holes in them to his own advantage was. Demons existed by and for the contracts with living mortals that fulfilled their desires. It was all part of a game the demon vastly enjoyed; the more intriguing, the better. Most of his counterparts sought out only simple soul contracts, the easiest ones to fulfill, consumed their prizes and moved on to the next. How boring. Sebastian enjoyed the  _ game _ , the dance and intrigue of searching out the more worthy mortal adversaries for his contracts. Quick and easy was no challenge, and Sebastian liked feeling challenged. 

 

Oh, of course, had Eric been a careless and unwise sort of mortal, Sebastian would have enjoyed taking advantage of his lapses in judgment to decimate the man’s partner into a shivering, bloody, wrecked husk of a boy (for boy he rather was, by vampire standards), sucking up all his delicious agony like a good wine. But occasionally a truly willing partner, who gave Sebastian the things he craved while sebastian was forced to draw those things from his partner’s (or partners’) body in accordance with the rules would yield a far more satisfying meal, turning it into a very fine wine rather than merely a good one. He could easily see now the man who had managed to topple the vampires’ control over their human slaves with his wit, cunning and determination. A worthy adversary in negotiation was somehow more thrilling than a weak one, simply because they were so rare. Sebastian enjoyed being surprised. It happened so rarely. He found himself thinking that he would not mind at all if this Eric should ever have cause to summon him someday. Negotiating a  _ real _ contract with this one would be truly stimulating, he thought. 

 

Eventually, the terms of their agreement satisfied Eric. After obtaining Sebastian’s consent to said terms, the young man reached for the silver knife. Cutting a shallow gash in his thumb, he swiped his pen through the blood welling from the tiny wound and signed his name to the document, then turned and offered it to Sebastian. The demon took it calmly. Refusing the knife because he found the burn of silver unpleasant, he lifted his hand to his mouth and bit the ball of his own thumb with the tip of one elongated canine and added the demonic symbol that represented his true name to the bottom of the document without hesitation. There was even a clause in it allowing Sebastian to bow out of the proposed session if he himself became uncomfortable for any reason. He’d chuckled a little at that, but Eric had insisted on including it. 

 

“Well then,” he said with a small twitch of a smile, “it appears we have an agreement.”

 

“It appears we do,” replied Eric with a small sigh. “So long as I can get its subject feeling compliant about it fast enough to get him to start enjoying himself before he thinks about the right word to use to stop it.” Another clause of the Oath he’d signed that made it appealing to Sebastian was that he was allowed to ignore any protests or refusal or begging for mercy from Eric’s vampire lover  _ except _ their code word. “Shell should be waking up anytime now. It’s well past midnight. Come, I’ll take you to the play room and then go get him. I think I’ve figured out the best way to handle this,” Eric continued, standing. Sebastian followed suit and followed the half-vampire down a hall, to a doorway that opened upon a set of stairs leading down. Eric paused to light a lamp, then led the way. The air was a bit damp, but also cooler. Sebastian noticed an odd assortment of old and new lumber, followed by stonework made of a mixed jumble of old, water-worn stones covered with greenish algae amid freshly hewn rock.

 

“Interesting construction,” he observed casually. Eric looked back over his shoulder.

 

“The water level has been rising for years. When I first found my parents’ house, the basement was filling with water during every high tide. It was on the verge of falling down. Shell’s money and resources enabled us to move the house, but we couldn’t save all the original materials,” he explained. There was a tinge of sadness in his voice, but no bitterness in his smile when he trailed his fingers along the stone that lined the walls of the basement as they descended. Sebastian merely nodded. This young man clearly had a lot of stories to tell, but tonight was not the time for them.

 

Contrary to the rest of the house, everything in the playroom was clearly new. The scents of fresh lumber and clean leather drifted to the demon’s nose as they entered the room. It was a fairly good parody of a torturer’s dungeon, with its stone walls and paved floor, its iron sconces in the walls, chains and hooks along said walls and hanging from the ceiling. The implements and apparatus of torment taking up the space clearly marked its obvious difference, however. Nothing there was meant to truly maim or cause lasting harm. The demon’s eyes roved over the sturdy wooden X-shaped cross bolted to the walls in one corner, a chair with a footstool in front, a heavy bench which was well-padded and covered in leather with rests on its legs for knees and elbows which looked as though its height could be adjusted at each end, heavy chain with a large hook dangling from the middle of the thick wooden ceiling joists, and the simple bed in another corner with four thick posts at its corners but a luxurious red velvet coverlet. The toys and implements along the walls comprised of cuffs of both steel and leather, objects for insertion, straps, assorted whips and flogs, riding crops, a couple of slender canes, and various other implements of pain and pleasure. Clearly, despite the house’s isolation, Shell had spared no expense in outfitting he and his lover’s private retreat.

 

“Will...er...will this do?” Sebastian glanced at his host at the question, finding the hint of awkwardness in the young man’s voice a bit odd.

 

“But of course. Much more than adequate,” he said with a wolfish smile. “I do wonder how you managed to get some of it down that rather slender stairwell though.”

 

“Ah. No. I built all of it. Down here,” said Eric with a self-deprecating huff of a laugh, running his fingers through his dark hair. Ah. That explained the hesitance in his question. 

 

“You? Well. It’s all better-constructed than many others I’ve seen. And I thought you said you were a banker before you became a rebel and a revolutionary,” said the demon with a smile. He was, of course, never opposed to a bit of well-placed flattery when it served its purpose, even though in this case there was no need to lie. It did the job, putting Eric at ease to have his fledgling skills validated. But of course, no one but his lover would have seen the things in this room, and from what he’d heard of young Overlord, he didn’t doubt that the vampire would have gushed with enthusiasm over every piece no matter its actual quality. As it was, Eric really was more than an adequate carpenter. The furnishings looked sturdy enough to stand up to even supernatural strength.

 

Eric walked over to one of the walls and took a sturdy, black leather collar and leash down off one of the hooks, then turned back to Sebastian.

 

“I’m going to go get Shell. If you don’t mind, I think it’s best if you don’t say anything once I’ve brought him down. Not until I introduce you,” he said. 

 

“Of course. I’ll take my cues from you until we’ve received his cooperation,” said the demon smoothly. Revealing or concealing his demonic powers of persuasion was really a moot point. Every vampire he’d ever met had been immune to them, and even if that weren’t the case, he rather thought that Eric wouldn’t like the idea of him using them on Shell anyway, so he held his tongue. After Eric left, he wandered around the simple but well-appointed little dungeon, examining the toys that would be at his disposal and considering which ones appealed to him. He decided to proceed with caution with Shell rather than tear into all that lovely pale flesh from the outset. Despite Eric’s assurances that he himself didn’t possess the physical strength to give his lover the intensity of play he needed, that didn’t mean the vampire would thrill to said intensity without being worked up to that point, and the hunger inside the monster craved a  _ lengthy _ meal. He hoped he’d have the patience for it. He’d been kept on a short leash for the past year and more. Hopefully his current contract was approaching its end. He chafed under the restraints set upon him by the seal on his arm. The Hunter’s illness was growing worse. He’d offered his soul knowing the consumption that ate away at his lungs prevented him from performing the physical aspect of his work and was slowly killing him. For all that he only sought to eliminate such monsters who wrought evil and destruction on an unsuspecting populace, his soul was deliciously dark with the ends he’d gone to during his lifetime to accomplish his goals, and would be a satisfying meal despite the blight of his disease. It could not come too soon for Sebastian’s taste. 

 

****

 

Shell’s compelling topaz eyes blinked open sleepily as Eric gently lifted his head and slipped the leather collar around his neck, buckling it securely and clipping on the leash without speaking, keeping his movements slow to give the vampire a few minutes to wake up. The collar was one of their unspoken signals. Shell was allowed to refuse, of course, he had only to say his safeword and the collar would come off, but Eric was as sure as it was possible to be that Shell wouldn’t say it. He was up for playing every single time; at least, he had been so far, and tonight was no exception. It never ceased to amaze Eric how effortlessly Shell slipped into his role as slave to Eric’s Master, his eyelashes dropping modestly over his eyes as he lowered them, sitting up smoothly in the bed and placing his hands on his bare thighs, palms up, bowing his head. A slight flush of excitement dusted his pale cheeks with palest pink and his lips parted as his breathing deepened. 

 

This was the only way it would work, Eric had decided. If Shell was already “in role,” as it were, before his lover told him what he wanted tonight, he’d be more inclined to hear out Eric’s request. He had two more cards to play to gain Shell’s cooperation, but he’d play those once Shell knew more about what was being proposed. 

 

“Up,” he said softly, and Shell rose instantly. He wouldn’t speak unless he was asked a question or told to at this point, though if he felt the need to ask or say anything, he was allowed to. Of course, Eric could feel Shell practically vibrating with eagerness to ask him what they were going to do, but knew better than to ask  _ that _ question, because when Eric didn’t offer any explanation beforehand, it always meant it was  _ supposed _ to be a surprise. His bare feet were silent on the floor as he followed, staying close enough that the leash didn’t tug. He was, by his very nature, so supremely graceful that the only sign of his presence behind Eric was the soft sound of his accelerated breathing in his excitement. 

 

Eric drew in a deep breath and squared his shoulders before leading Shell into their play room.  _ Please let this work, _ he thought. Due to the depth of Shell’s submissive nature, he kept his eyes downcast, so he didn’t notice the other presence in the dungeon for a split second. It gave Eric a chance to reach out, quick as a flash, and fist a hand in Shell’s hair even as his head came up in shock, his nose wrinkling in a way that Eric had to admit to himself was awfully cute despite the seriousness of the situation as the demon’s scent penetrated the pleasant dreamlike haze in the vampire’s veins. His catlike pupils dilated wide, then narrowed to slits. A soft hiss escaped his throat and his body tensed. Eric clenched his fist harder and yanked Shell’s head back, pulling him off balance as he realized that Shell was on the verge of launching an attack upon what he perceived to be an intruder in their space.

 

“Stop,” snapped Eric coldly, breathing a silent sigh of relief when Shell froze, eyes darting to him in confusion. “Is that any way to behave towards a guest?”

 

“I...I don’t understand,” whispered Shell. 

 

“You will,” said Eric softly, lifting his other hand to cup Shell’s cheek tenderly, rubbing his thumb over his lover’s full bottom lip. “But you’re going to be a good boy for me right now and shut your pretty mouth until I give you permission to speak. Do you understand?” Shell glanced at him, clearly conflicted, but his trust overrode his instincts and he gave a short nod, which was about all he could manage with Eric’s tight hold on his hair. “Good,” said Eric. Standing in the corner of the room near the heavy wooden cross, Sebastian stood preternaturally still. It didn’t seem as though he was even breathing. After a brief glance, Eric turned his full attention to Shell and looked sternly into his eyes. He could feel his lover flinch slightly in the face of his disapproving expression, but he honestly felt that the time for coddling the vampire’s feelings was long past. He loved Shell for his convictions, but at this point he was honestly afraid they were going to get him killed. Someone  _ would _ notice that Shell wasn’t feeding. There  _ would _ be a noble who required a show of force to convince them to capitulate. Between his near starvation and the amount of stress he was carrying on his shoulders just because he was too  _ kind _ to want to hurt Eric’s feelings, it was time to stop pulling punches. 

 

“We have two issues to deal with tonight,” he said in a low growl that made Shell shiver involuntarily. “The first is your refusal to feed in a way that will actually sustain you. I respect your choice not to drink human blood, even if I think your reasons for it are no longer valid, so I won’t force you to do it. I’ve found a solution for that problem.” Shell’s eyes widened in confusion, but he was too obedient to interrupt his Master. “And the second is that I’m tired of you lying to me to try to save my feelings when the truth wouldn’t hurt them.” Shell frowned a little, still clearly confused. Eric gave the hand gripping his hair a tiny shake, his gaze hardening even more. “You submit to me and trust me to give you the pain you crave not just because you like it, but because it steadies you and helps you let go of your stress. This campaign to get all the other Lords to change over to our free market plan using Reign’s perfume to break their hold on their humans is more stress than either of us had planned for, because it’s taking more time than we’d hoped. Do you really think I can’t see it when you have to go back to all of that and you’re still tense? I’m not stupid, Shell. I know I can’t always give you as much as you need to make you feel better.”

 

Shell opened his mouth, on the verge of protest, before remembering his orders and snapping his mouth shut, but he looked both stubborn and unhappy. Eric crowded closer to him, shielding his near-nudity from the demon’s view. With his free hand, he pinched one pale nipple between his fingertips, hard. Shell gasped, then stifled a small moan in his throat. Eric softened the harsh look on his face for a moment. “I love how responsive you are, Shell. I love the things we do together. It’s worth every day we have to be apart. But it’s my job, because of the trust you put in me when you submit to me, to take care of you. You are a full, noble-blooded vampire. I’m a half blood. Your powers make mine look so small in comparison. I will  _ never  _ stop wanting this, or wanting you. I love you, and I love making you cry for me. But I  _ know _ there are times that I could whip you will all my strength and it wouldn’t be enough, especially after a very stressful month. Just because you cry easily doesn’t mean you’re able to let everything out, and it’s insulting to me for you to pretend that it’s always enough. I can see and sense and smell when you’re still tense when you have to leave me. If I were just a human like we used to believe, you could fool me, but you know I’m not, and I have enough of my mother’s blood to be able to tell. Go on, Shell. Lift your head and look me in the eye and tell me that it’s always enough, every single time, to relieve every bit of your stress. But remember that I can smell lies too, and so can our guest.”

 

Shell stood still for a long time. Eric could feel him trembling. When he finally looked up, there were tears in his eyes, and he looked so miserable and guilty that Eric’s impulse was to let him off the hook. Instead, he hardened his heart and waited.

 

“It...it’s  _ almost always _ enough,” whispered Shell. “And I love everything you do to me, no matter what, Eric. Master. Please...don’t….don’t make me go away again. Even if, every now and then, I still feel a little bit tense when I have to go home, it’s still wonderful. I’m so much happier than I was before. I never want you to think that I’m not happy. Please, Master….please don’t give me up,” he pleased, beginning to look nearly frantic with fear and worry. Eric smiled lovingly and shut him up with a kiss.

 

“Shell, I’ll give you up when I’m cold in the ground beside my mother, and we both know that’s going to be a very, very long time. Thank you for finally being honest with me. I’m so proud of you. That’s all I wanted. Just the truth. My feelings aren’t hurt. I’m not as physically strong as you are. It’s just a fact that I can’t...flog you as hard as another vampire could. I’m not happy that you tried to hide this from me, but you’re so kind that you never want to hurt anyone you care about. Look at me. I promise you, I’m not hurt. I am who I am, and I accepted all of me about the same time I learned to accept all of you. I’m not going to make you go away. I’d kill anyone who tried to take you. You’re  _ mine _ , and I’m keeping you.”

 

Shell’s shoulders slumped in relief and he threw his arms around Eric, kissing him back with enthusiasm. Eric let him do it for a little while. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Sebastian lean against the cross, watching them. His eyes slid closed for a moment and he tilted his head back, like a wolf scenting the air. Already, Eric could see a bit of color in his pale cheeks. Apparently he had not lied about being able to feed off of lust, and could taste theirs from across the room. His mouth curved into a smile against Shell’s and he gently pushed Shell back a little, looking intently into his eyes.

 

“Now,” he said, “do you remember, after we talked about you having to sleep with Shade, about what it might be like to invite another person to play with us sometime. And the other times since then that we’ve talked about it too?”

 

“I….yes, Master,” whispered Shell, blushing, because they’d had some pretty interesting sex after those talks.

 

“Come.” Eric tugged on the leash and led Shell across the room to where the demon stood, leaning at his ease against the cross. He straightened as they approached. Shell kept his eyes down, but he was studying the stranger from under his eyelashes. “This is Sebastian. I’ve been talking to him for several hours tonight, since he stumbled across this property in his travels.”

 

“Hello,” whispered Shell shyly, proffering his hand as any gentleman of good breeding would. Sebastian smiled in amusement, taking Shell’s hand. He bowed over it and leaned down to brush a kiss over the back of the young vampire’s hand. Shell shuddered and lifted his head to stare at the demon in startled confusion.

 

“It’s my very great pleasure to meet you, Shell Overlord,” he purred in a voice so seductive it even sent shivers down Eric’s spine. 

 

“I don’t understand, Master,” whispered Shell.

 

“Sebastian is not from our world, Shell. He’s neither human or vampire, but he’s at least as powerful as one. Probably more. He was sent here by a human with whom he has a contract to hunt vampires who were hurting people, except he found that things had already changed because of what we did. He’s bound by that contract not to harm anyone who isn’t evil, and he and I have made another contract to make sure that nothing happens tonight that you don’t thoroughly enjoy. He understands your hunger, because he shares it. It’s just a different kind. He doesn’t feed off of blood. He can feed off feelings. The kind of feelings we create when I bring you down here into this room. And he can feed  _ you _ , without breaking your vow, because he’s not human. I know you can tell from his scent that it’s true,” said Eric. 

 

“I….yes, I can. I’ve never smelled blood like this, but I can tell he’s not human, or a vampire. What...what  _ is _ he?” asked Shell hesitantly.

 

“I am a demon, only able to exist in the upper realms when under contract with a human being, who becomes my master for the term of that contract, which I’m unable to break.”

 

“I didn’t know demons were real,” said Shell, eyes widening in shock. He looked at Eric nervously. “Aren’t….aren’t they supposed to be evil?”

 

“Aren’t vampires supposed to be evil too?” countered Eric.

 

“I...oh. Well, a very great many of them  _ are _ pretty bad,” mumbled Shell awkwardly, but Sebastian smiled, completely unruffled.

 

“Yet  _ you  _ are not,” he said placidly. “My actions are defined by the terms of my contract. Yours are determined by the choices you’ve made and by the things you must do to change the world you live in into a better place. I can sense and smell it on you, that we have this in common; we are both forced to starve by the vows we’ve made. I can help you, Lord Shell. My blood will not violate your vow. And my physical prowess will give you  _ all _ the suffering you have ever craved. As for myself, the pain and desire of your body will quench my thirst in the same way my blood will quench yours.”

 

Shell’s body leaned towards Sebastian unconsciously, breathing in the scent of him. Eric smiled to himself to see the hunger in Shell’s eyes. Apparently the demon smelled  _ very _ good to him. He glanced at Eric hesitantly, and the half-vampire saw that Shell’s pupils were dilated, his lips parted and wet where he’d unconsciously licked them.

 

“I won’t force you, Shell,” he said softly.

 

“I’m nervous,” admitted Shell, blushing in embarrassment to admit it in front of a stranger, but honest to a fault.

 

“About what, love?” 

 

“About what will happen. I know we’ve talked about it, but…” He looked at the demon apologetically and edged a little closer to Eric. “I apologize, sir, but I don’t  _ know _ you.”

 

“You didn’t know me either when you had me summoned from the bank and asked me to dominate you,” Eric pointed out. Shell’s blush deepened.

 

“That’s...that’s true, but at the time, even if I hated the very idea of it, I owned you. You  _ had _ to obey me,” whispered Shell. 

 

“If I may?” asked Sebastian. Eric nodded, so the demon continued. “I understand you reservations. And your reasoning. However, I’d like to point out that for the purposes of this night,  _ Eric _ essentially owns  _ me _ . I’m bound by the terms of our agreement, signed in blood, to adhere to them.”

 

“I’ll be here the whole time, Shell. Sebastian knows your safeword, and he’ll stop if you use it,” said Eric.

 

“And...and you’re  _ sure _ you won’t be angry if I....if someone else….”

 

“Shell,” said Eric seriously, stopping his lover’s words with the tips of his fingers on Shell’s lips. “I have complete faith in you. I put a gun in your hands and trusted you to shoot me with it, because I trusted you. I  _ want _ you to enjoy this, or I’d never have suggested it. It won’t make me insecure if you do. It’s my  _ job _ to make sure you’re as happy as I can make you. Can you stop worrying and think about it that way? That this is just another way of me giving you what you need.”

 

Shell looked up at him, biting his lip, then looked at the demon, who leaned negligently against the cross as though the outcome made no difference to him one way or another, but his red eyes gleamed in the dim lighting of the basement. Shell blushed again, fidgeting and ducking his head, then finally gave a small, hesitant nod. He didn’t see the way Sebastian’s mouth curved into a slow, satisfied smile.

 

Straightening, the demon reached up and slowly unfastened the knot of his cravat. Noticing the movement, the vampire looked up at him and did not look away again as he, still moving slowly, carefully removed his jacket and turned to hang it on one of the hooks on the wall. A satisfied smirk played at his lips. He could almost taste the vampire’s hunger on his tongue. Schooling his expression, he turned back around and reached up, unhurriedly unbuttoning the top button of his linen shirt. Shell’s catlike pupils expanded as he bared his throat. He didn’t stop there, but continued on so that he could at last remove his shirt and hang it alongside his jacket, baring his pale, sculpted torso. Partly he didn’t wish to get blood on such fine garments if he could help it. Sebastian preferred to appear perfectly groomed at all times when in his human form. There was something about the contrast between his appearance of gentility and the reality of his depravity that amused him. Partly he knew he’d be able to move more comfortably with it off. His clothing was perfectly tailored to this form, and while he was certainly capable of doing anything he wished in it, he wouldn’t risk it binding under his arms or tearing a seam while swinging a whip with it off. And he was self-aware enough to be able to admit that it appealed to his vanity to see the look of admiration on his more personally intimate meals’ faces when they looked at this form, knowing it was pleasing to the eye; tall, slender but muscular with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, soft hair, a beautiful face. 

 

The only other time he’d been bitten by a vampire had been in a completely different reality. The creature had been very different from the one before him; mindless with hunger, barely any trace of humanity left, a soulless monster that reeked of old blood and rot. It had tried its best to kill him, latching down on the forearm he’d thrown up in defense of his throat when it bit down, and too starved to even notice or try again to sink fangs into his neck while it savaged his arm, worrying at it like a wolf on a kill, the strength of its jaws shattering both bones in his forearm even as he killed it. He’d managed to work the sword blade free from his cane where he’d dropped it in the struggle, working it laboriously between their bodies as the creature snarled and ate at his arm, then he’d used his preternatural strength to behead it despite the bad angle, ignoring the pain in his arm but making a face of utter distaste as its black, rotting blood sprayed all over him in its death throes. It had melted away into a puddle of black, tarry goo which had dried up and flaked away on the wind like ash.

 

He didn’t know if Shell’s bite would hurt or not, and didn’t care. He knew vampires in this world used pheromones to control their food and likely to give them the impression of bliss whether it was real or not (though likely those same pheromones ensured that it was). First of all, vampire pheromones on any world in which he’d encountered them didn’t work on demonkind, and second, he could tell that Shell was making no attempt to use them. In fact, he rather hoped it  _ would _ hurt. Pain appealed to the monster under Sebastian’s skin in all its forms, and whether it fed him through inflicting it or experiencing it only depended on his mood, because both were equally satisfying, though he tended to lean towards the dominant role mostly because he rarely met an individual he thought could satisfy his urges on the receiving end. Smiling, he stepped close to Shell and reached out slowly, running his long fingers through silky blond hair, his nails gently scratching along the shorter man’s scalp. Shell’s eyelashes fluttered as his eyes rolled back a little. He gasped when Sebastian pressed their bodies together. The vampire’s skin was cool as marble against his naked chest. He could feel Shell’s hesitance even through his hunger.

 

“Come how, pretty one,” he whispered coaxingly into the young lord’s ear. “Take what you need. You won’t harm me. Have no fear. It won’t take much, and I’m strong enough to stop you if your self-imposed starvation makes you overeager.” He tilted his head to the side, exposing the long, slender line of his throat. “Shell,” he commanded when the vampire still hesitated. “Feed. Now.”

 

The vampire’s fangs piercing his flesh and sinking into his neck was a bright, sharp shock of delicious pain that burned through the demon’s blood. Sebastian bit back a moan and shuddered when Shell’s lips locked around his teeth, sucking tentatively at first. Then, the flavor and the sheer power of supernatural blood hit his palate and Shell swayed in Sebastian’s arms, his knees going weak. He groaned and started to suck harder, growling low in his chest. And yet, despite his hunger and the intoxicating flow of such powerful blood filling him, Shell was careful. He didn’t bite too hard, or worry at Sebastian’s neck, or suck harshly at his flesh. Knowing the effect his blood could have on any being who could feed off it, Sebastian only let the vampire drink for a couple of minutes.

 

“Shell,” he said softly but firmly, wrapping his hands around the shorter man’s upper arms and squeezing hard enough to make him notice, “stop now. That will be more than enough to fill you for quite some time. If you keep drinking, you’ll be too drunk to give the consent your Master insists you must be able to give.”

 

He expected a bit of a struggle. Shell hadn’t fed on blood in a very long time. Not only was he starving, but his first meal after such lengthy deprivation was very much akin to the most addictive of drugs known to mankind. Sebastian was rarely surprised anymore. He’d been around for too long, and seen far too much. But Shell surprised him. Although he trembled, he withdrew his fangs instantly at the order, neatly licking away the twin trickles of blood that seeped out of the small punctures in the demon’s neck, sealing them quickly with whatever agent in vampire saliva enabled them to heal and conceal the evidence of their feeding when they chose to do it. Sebastian had seen humans in this world with scars littering their necks and arms, so he assumed that some vampires enjoyed seeing the evidence of their ownership on their Arts, while others preferred their food to remain unflawed. Shell’s control and obedience were startlingly impressive.

 

The vampire stumbled as he took a step back. Sebastian and Eric’s hands reached out at the same time to steady him. When Eric gently pulled Shell’s back up against his chest, Sebastian relinquished his hold without protest, willing to wait. Shell smiled dreamily at him, then turned his head to look up at Eric.

 

“F-fuck,” whispered Eric when he saw Shell’s face. The vampire was transformed.

 

The hollow shadows were completely gone from his cheeks and under his eyes. His skin almost glowed, luminous with satiety. His eyes glowed a hot, molten gold, pupils nearly invisible behind their brilliance. At his Master’s startled curse, Shell’s blissed-out smile faltered.

 

“Did...did I do something wrong, Master?” he asked. Even his voice was different; deeper and resonant with the power he had always kept on a very short leash because he hated his own ability to influence humans with its command.

 

“He did  _ very  _ well,” Sebastian assured them both. “I must admit that I am rarely surprised, and his ability to stop voluntarily when I asked….surprised me. I did not expect him to be able to resist the urge to keep drinking.”

 

“Master says I’m to obey you,” murmured Shell, blushing prettily. He had been attractive before. Now he was breathtaking; glowing with health and power that Sebastian almost drooled to taste for himself. “Your blood is very good though. I’ve never felt so good in my life.”

 

“You were very good Shell. You just look so different that it surprised me, that’s all,” said Eric, finally shaking off his shock. He looked to the demon. “Guess you weren’t exaggerating how strong your blood would be for him. I...thank you.”

 

“Oh,” gasped Shell, flushing an even darker pink. He ducked his head in a small bow. “Yes, thank you very much, sir.” His voice still sounded a little bit slurred, but he’d taken only a small amount of blood, so it was clearing fairly quickly, the molten burn in his eyes gradually but steadily fading to normal. 

 

“You are both welcome,” smiled Sebastian politely, even though inside his head, his own hunger snarled at him to snatch the pretty vampire from his lover’s arms and make him scream  _ right now _ . He ignored it and showed them only his well-mannered facade, hoping that patience would have its reward.

 

“How are you feeling now, Shell?” asked Eric softly, looking keenly into Shell’s eyes. Shell leaned against him for a bit, letting out a deep sigh of contentment.

 

“Honestly? Like I could tear apart Brutal Bones with my bare hands if he was still around. Or move this house another 50 meters away from the tide mark if you wished me to,” he said.

 

“Shell…”

 

“It’s not much of an exaggeration, Master. But I’m feeling much more myself now too. It was very much like how I imagine humans feel when intoxicated at first, but that’s fading quickly. It’s been so long since I’ve felt so….so full.  _ All _ my power is restored, and then some. I’d know you weren’t human from that alone if you’d tried to hide your true identity in some way,” said Shell, turning his attention to Sebastian. An expression of loathing marred his lovely face. “I’d have had to drain more than one human completely to restore myself so,” he said sadly. “More than two. Possibly many more. This doesn’t change my mind. I am grateful though. Even as this blood restores and strengthens me beyond belief, it only reinforces my belief that drinking human blood is wrong. Things are better, but there is still not equality. People can choose, but selling their blood to a bank is really the only choice if they want to live, and so many parasites can afford to buy the equivalent of dozens of lives on which to glut themselves in waste and excess. Now, thanks to the two of you, I feel truly strong enough to make real change, better change. I was worried at first, but not anymore. Eric...Master….thank you. You always think of my well-being. I’m sorry I wasn’t truthful with you about how stressful things had become. In fact,” he lowered his lashes and gazed up at Eric from under them, pink lips quirking up at the corners in a coy little smile, “I think it was rather bad of me, don’t you?” He glanced over at Sebastian and bit his lip. He must not have been paying very close attention, because he cut himself with the tip of his own fang. Then, before both their eyes, the tiny wound closed in a fraction of a second. The demon smiled pleasantly. Beneath the smile his canine teeth lengthened, sharp as razors with hunger. 

 

Eric grinned at Shell. Normally he shied away from playing at punishing Shell for anything real, because Shell had a terrible tendency to take too much guilt upon himself. He was thinking that perhaps that tendency had a lot to do with Shell’s perpetual exhaustion and weakness now, because the playful sparkle in his lover’s eyes showed no sign of any guilt. 

 

“Are you ready?” breathed Eric into Shell’s ear, not responding to his question just yet. “I said I wouldn’t force you. I promised to keep you safe, and I’ll do my best to always keep that promise.”

 

“I know,” said Shell softly, turning in Eric’s arms to raise up a little and kiss him sweetly. He smiled. “I love you so much, Master. And yes, I am ready. I trust you.”

 

“Such a good boy,” Eric replied, kissing him back briefly. He placed his hands on Shell’s shoulders and turned him back around to face their guest. His right hand trailed over Shell’s neck and down his chest, brushing one pink nipple, then grazed over his taut stomach, making Shell shiver. He picked up the looped grip of the short leash dangling from the thick leather collar and raised it up, reaching out, offering it to Sebastian.

 

“So you’ve been ‘rather bad,’ have you?” purred Sebastian, looking into Shell’s golden eyes.

 

“Oh….y-yes, sir,” gasped Shell. Something about those deep crimson eyes made him want to squirm.

 

“How interesting. Where I come from,  _ terrible _ things happen to bad little boys.”

 

“Th-they do?”

 

“Oh yes.” Sebastian took a step towards Shell. “Hiding truths from your Master? Tch. They’re punished  _ so _ severely.”

 

“Hn….do they….oh….do they cry?” 

 

Sebastian grinned.

 

“They cry and cry, and they beg for mercy, but it doesn’t help at all. They’re punished until their Masters decide it’s enough, no matter what they say. Is that what you need, Shell Overlord?”

 

“I-I...oh. Yes. Please.”

 

“Hm. I thought so. Do you want to know something else? Would you like to know what happens after the punishment is over?”

 

“If...sir. If it pleases you to tell me,” whispered Shell.

 

“By my oath, you  _ are _ exquisite,” murmured Sebastian. He could already taste Shell on his tongue, his lust heady and sweet. He’d yet to actually touch the pretty young vampire and already it was more than his current master usually allowed him to feed in a month. “Yes, it pleases me. After your….’punishment’....is over, you’ll be a good boy again, and that means you get to feel. So.  _ Good. _ Again and again, until you can’t bear it anymore. Your body forced to ecstasy over and over, until you think you are completely spent. And then? We’ll make it happen one more time.”

 

“Please,” whimpered Shell.

 

The demon took his leash.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian gives Shell what he needs. That's all it is. Yep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long. I got very ill, and during that time my laptop died. I hope you guys haven't lost interest. Anyway, here's the final chapter! For now. Upcoming at some time in the future, a full-powered Shell and Eric feel sorry for Reign being all alone with no one to Dominate him, even though he's "out" and....
> 
> Well.
> 
> Please be forwarned that there are scenes of minor bloodletting in this chapter, in case that bothers you, and some rough sex that would be pretty painful for a normal human. Nobody in this fic is a normal human.
> 
> Also I do know I'm playing a bit fast and loose with the story. As far as I know, Sebastian actually has a different name with everyone he signs a contract with, but didn't want to confuse anyone as to who he was, so I kept it the same, even thoug this is a different time and setting, i.e. no Ciel in the picture at this point. Some of his abilities are canon, others are not. I did find out that demons actually DO enter into contracts that don't culminate in their taking the person's soul, but in which they see some personal gain, so yay for that.

The demon’s gaze swept over all the toys hanging on the wall, feeling more than a little spoiled for choice. So very many enticing ways to make Shell suffer. So many ways to stir the flames of desire into desperate need. He smirked a little, flashing a hint of fang, as he glanced down and sees the tent in the front of the vampire’s undershorts. So  _ that  _ wouldn’t be a terribly difficult task.

 

Well, regardless of how obedient Eric had promised his lover can be, Sebastian rather liked his partners trussed up and helpless, so that was somewhere to start. He walked casually over to the array of restraints and chose the thickest, heaviest leather set of wrist and ankle cuffs. It looked as though they matched the collar he was already wearing. Aesthetically pleasing  _ and _ constructed to resist vampiric strength. Well, they probably hadn’t been tested on a vampire hopped up on demon blood, but there was that obedience to consider, so he’d see. If they broke, he could always change them out for the steel, though that would bruise Shell’s flesh at the least, and lacerate it at worst if he struggled. 

 

Sebastian returned to where Shell stood, breathing heavily through his nose and looking a bit as though he was about to vibrate to pieces with anticipation and nerves. Smiling, he reached down and slowly ran one sharp, black fingernail up the length of Shell’s covered erection. The vampire gasped and squirmed a little, though he kept his feet firmly planted. There was a wet spot staining the white linen darker near his waistband. The demon wanted to bend down and suck on that spot, so see what it tasted like. But he’d be patient. For now.

 

“Hands,” he said coolly. Shell instantly raised his hands, palms up, wrists close together. “Now,” continued Sebastian as he fastened on one after the other, “you are a great deal stronger right now than you have ever been in your life. I’m certain these were crafted to be sturdy enough to truly restrain you, but I’m not certain that will be the case tonight. You wouldn’t be able to break the manacles, but I’d really as soon not use them unless you make me. That means you’ll have to be obedient enough not to test these too severely so that we won't have to find out.”

 

“Yes, Sir,” whispered Shell solemnly.

 

“I agree,” put in Eric, leaning against the cross. “I put a lot of work into those. If you break them, I’m not going to be very happy about it. Be a good boy and don’t struggle too much, Shell.”

 

“I won’t, Master,” promised Shell, ducking his head and blushing as his eyes darted back and forth between them. Sebastian ran the tip of one finger under the edge of the cuffs to make sure they weren’t too tight, then snapped them together with the steel clamp dangling from the right one. Holding on to the metal hardware joining the two cuffs, he led the vampire over to the big hook dangling from the ceiling. Shell didn’t resist as his arms were raised over his head and the cuffs slid over the hook.

 

“Before we  _ really _ begin,” said the demon conversationally, “I’m going to check your response to certain...stimuli. I’d ask you not to try to hide your reactions, but….” He smirked, pressing the tip of a nail gently into one pretty pink nipple, at which Shell shuddered and gasped out loud. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”

 

“Ah! N-no, Sir.”

 

Sebastian hadn’t had an involuntary erection in so many years he couldn’t remember the last time. But the scent of this vampire, the taste of his desire on the back of his tongue, and his positively delicious and uninhibited responsiveness were almost dauntingly appealing. He felt a stirring in his trousers. He decided not to mind. A feral smile on his face, he reached down and  _ ripped _ Shell’s shorts from his body. Shell trembled, his body rocking towards the demon, and oh, what a pretty cock he had, so hard already, and such a tender pink color at the tip. 

 

Sebastian ignored it completely for now, reaching up to brush his thumbs once over both of Shell’s nipples before taking them between his fingers and pinching them sharply. The vampire cried out softly and arched into the pain as Sebastian twisted. He panted and moaned when first one, and then the other, were sucked into the monster’s hot mouth and bitten red and swollen, grazed nearly raw with the edge of his fangs. Pleased enough with the helpless mewls of pain and pleasure, he straightened, licking his lips. Turning to the wall, he scanned with gleaming ruby eyes until he saw what he wanted. Going to pluck the shiny silver chain with its small gleaming clamps, he returned and carefully fastened each one to an abused and swollen nipple, tightening them down until Shell howled and tears stood at the corners of his eyes. Giving the chain a soft tug, he dropped it and looked down at the straining erection between the vampire’s thighs.

 

“Oh my,” he purred, “you look about to burst, and we can’t have that. Not yet, at any rate.”

 

“Ngh...I...I’m sorry, Sir,” panted Shell. 

 

“How sweet. You’re not, you know. Not yet. But you will be,” promised Sebastian, and pulled the other leather item he’d palmed when he’d selected the cuffs from the wall. Shell whimpered and shook when long, slender fingers wrapped around his cock, lifting it up to wrap the slim band of leather around its base and snap it tight. “Don’t worry. I’ll take it off when it’s time, but we can’t have you coming too soon, or without permission, can we? You’re not going to need any more reasons to be punished, I promise you.” Shell moaned helplessly.

 

Sebastian strolled in a small circle around him, a skilled hunter assessing its prey, reaching out now and then to give the chain of the nipple clamps a tug, or run the edge of a sharp nail down the clean line of the vampire’s spine to leave a long red mark in its wake, which made Shell cry out again….or to give that delicious ass a sharp slap with the palm of his hand, to fist a hand in his blond curls, yanking his head to the side and to leave a bruising bite mark on the lovely column of his throat. Shell’s desire and pain blended and swirled together so perfectly. It was unlike any other partner or victim he’d ever toyed with. The two rose at the same rate, mixing into a heady scent that already began to seep into the demon’s bloodstream, the appetizer to the finest gourmet meal. He felt stronger already, and he wasn’t even trying to siphon any of that delicious energy off yet. It startled him a little, how easily Shell gave it up to him. Voluntarily. Submitting easily and  _ trusting _ , against all sane thought, because his Master said he could. Sebastian couldn’t remember a meal of this sort that he hadn’t had to  _ take. _ Even most of his soul contracts, in the end, tried to fight the inevitable when they were finally confronted with their deaths. As if they’d somehow believed they’d be able to escape in the end. He didn’t think he’d have to rip his current contract’s soul from him when the time came. The mage was sick, dying slowly from consumption, and had no illusions about what awaited him, no illusions about the dark thing he’d done in his life in order to accomplish his goals. But his soul, despite being as corrupt as any demon could hope, was old and tired and worn. 

 

Lust or pain, or both, had always,  _ always _ been a secondary food source for the demon. Something to tide him over between contracts, or during an extended one, when he hadn’t had the opportunity to take a soul in the line of his work for a while. But  _ this _ ….the heady combination of his favorite flavors accompanied by a bright, uncorrupted and pure soul, and given freely, along with the sheer  _ power _ residing in Shell’s body...it was utterly unique. Sebastian already felt a little drunk on it, and they’d barely even started. Speaking of which, he knew now exactly where he wanted the young vampire. 

 

He reached up and slid the cuffs free of the steel hook. Shell stumbled a little as he was led, his lovely eyes already blurred with need, over to the cleverly constructed horse in the middle of the room. Eric’s idea to make both ends of the piece adjustable for height was ingenious. Most people settled for building or altering a standard sawhorse when creating this kind of apparatus. This one, though, had a lot of possibilities.

 

“Climb up here for me, Settle your knees and elbows in the supports and find a comfortable position. You’re going to be here for a while,” ordered the demon. Shell complied easily, scrambling onto the bench, carefully placing him limbs and shifting around until he was actually satisfied that he was, indeed, comfortable. “All right?”

 

“Yes, SIr,” replied Shell shyly, blushing again. The position, after all, was more than a little exposing. It arched his back and elevated his hips, spreading his thighs to span the bench so that all his nether charms were visible. Sebastian shifted to the front of the apparatus to lean down a remove the steel pegs from the holes in the front legs. Shell’s breath caught at the way the demon so effortlessly raised the front of the bench while he was already perched on it, as though he weighed nothing. The vampire didn’t need to know that the demon’s strength was capable of lifting both he and the bench over his head and throwing it through the stone walls of the basement dungeon if he desired. He didn’t want to scare the boy, but startling him a little was definitely a bonus. The new position of the bench raised Shell’s upper body in a long, comfortable forward-recline, settling some of his weight back on his hips so that his tightly bound cock would grind hard into the padded leather. He’d be able to rut and grind his hardness into it with almost no effort, but he’d get no relief as long his Sebastian chose to make him wear the cock ring. He whimpered as his flesh pressed harder into buttery-soft leather, unable to resist rocking his hips against it in small movements.

 

“If you come before I take that off you, I’ll replace it with the gates of hell I saw hanging on the wall and plug your cock with a crochet needle so you won’t be able to come, or even get fully erect, for a  _ very _ long time. I assure you I’m not joking, little boy. The choice is yours, of course,: said the demon comfortably. Shell bit his lip and stopped rocking. “Very good. I’m going to punish you now, darling, just the way you’ve been needing to be punished for such long time. I’m not going to stop when you cry. I’m not going to stop when you beg. I won’t even stop if you scream. You know how to stop me, if it becomes too much. Are you ready for that?”

 

“Oh god, yes please Sir. Please punish me. I...I need it,” gasped Shell, squirming happily against the leather. Sebastian chuckled as he turned to the wall with its many hooks. Seeing something he liked, he picked up a sturdy cat with a bit over half a dozen stiff, slender falls, each strand cut to a point at its end. Swinging it back and forth, and seeing Shell watch it the way a mesmerised mouse watches a cobra, he strolled slowly behind towards the vampire. Laying the flog over Shell’s lower back, he reached down and fastened Shell’s ankles and knees to the O-rings drilled into the bench. Then flipped up the thick, sturdy strap of leather attached to the sides of the bench and buckled it securely around Shell’s waist, holding him even more completely in place, and protecting his kidneys as well. The vampire squirmed and shifted against his bonds for a few moments, testing them, but then he relaxed, secure that he was securely held in place.

 

Shell shuddered heavily when Sebastian let the tips of the whip’s strands trickle and fall down his back, over the beautifully rounded swell of his ass, between his legs, and then over one leg and back up the other.

 

“Oh  _ please _ ,” he whispered.

 

“And are you so anxious to be punished?” asked Sebastian curiously. The falls of this whip were crude, stiff leather, almost rawhide. It was not a toy meant to titillate, but a tool meant for pain, but Shell showed no fear.

 

“Oh yes please. I...I lied to my Master, and...and I’m...I need….I need it Sir. Please.”

 

“Exquisite,” whispered the demon again, but it’s really the best word for this almost otherworldly creature. He drew his arm back, swinging the flog in a few figure eights in the air to get a feel for its movement, then he planted his feet and lashed it down across Shell’s back. Each strand made a thick, meaty sound against the muscle covering the vampire’s shoulders. Shell threw his head back and howled. Sebastian paid no attention, following the first blow quickly with another, and then another. In moments, Shell’s back and shoulders were covered with bright red welts. The sharp tips and stiff cure of the falls bit deep into his skin. Very soon, bright crimson blood dotted his pale flesh in shocking contrast to the unblemished porcelain. But before the demon’s eyes, the tiny, skin deep wounds closed over, healing almost as fast as they’re inflicted. A small thrill shivered up his spine. Shell’s cries and moans were uninhibited and very heartfelt, and shining tears rolled down his flushed cheeks, but when the demon paused, Shell let out a whine of protest.

 

“Don’t worry, filthy little boy,” (for, although the vampire may have been close to two hundred years old, even he was still a little boy compared to the centuries Sebastian had seen come and go), “Your punishment isn’t over yet. I just want to taste you.” And he leaned down and licked a long stripe up Shell’s back. The flavor of his blood exploded on the demon’s tongue like the bouquet of the finest wine. Power hummed through his body like the touch of a live wire. He moaned in pleasure, scraping the pristine flesh hidden under the small drops of blood with his canines. A human would likely already be shrieking in agony, for Sebastian was not holding back much of his full strength. But, though he panted out sobbing breaths, tears streaming from his eyes, Shell begged for more in a choked voice. Sebastian was startled to realize that, even if he weren’t bound so thoroughly by the wording of his agreement with the vampires Master, he was pretty sure he’d still do his best to make sure that Shell enjoyed their play together. His blood was thickly spiced with lust and pain, and although it would still taste good without it, Sebastian found that he  _ wanted _ the desire. Not that he didn’t intend to absolutely wreck Shell Overlord’s tight ass when the time came, but he thought that the vampire would love that too. And that he wanted him to. The pheromones heavily laced with torment and desire were thick in the air, thick on the demon’s tongue and in his nostrils, feeding and feeding him everything Shell felt freely, released without hesitation or fear. He’d used to believe that fear added spice, but this feed was perfectly seasoned without it. Perhaps when he was done, he’d go looking for one of those sanctimonious angels who have come so close to destroying him in the past and who continued to hunt him, just waiting for him to slip up so that they could shred his wings and cast him back down into the pit. His claret eyes shone with power. He could just imagine the disbelief in their eyes when they lay eyes on him, shining with power, and could find no sign that he’d stolen or coerced or lied to get it, and thus it would stand up to their own with ease. Shell’s power was uncorrupted, and felt like sparks of pure light in the hungry demons blood.

 

He took a step back and adjusted his stance just a bit, turning the cat on Shell’s ass, working over the soft, rounded backside with even harder strokes, since that part of him was even more padded than the powerful muscles over his shoulders and upper back. Shell’s voice cracked on a howl of pain, body trembling with sobs. Apparently Eric hadn’t lied when he’d said Shell cried easily. But it was obviously not a sign of his inability to tolerate pain, or to enjoy it, for his back arched and he strained towards the whip rather than away, the arousal visible between his spread thighs not flagging even a little. Even wearing a cock ring, if someone truly lost interest, it wouldn’t be able to maintain an erection for very long unless it was put on much  _ too _ tight. The fact that the vampire was leaking copiously was a pretty good sign too, along with his scent. With the demons senses, and his affinity for these two states of mind in particular, meant that Shell would be unable to fool him if he began to lose the thrill of anything Sebastian inflicted on him. The taste of pain would overpower the lust. Fear had a taste too, one that soured the other two for the demon in cases like this when he wasn’t trying to frighten someone. But there was no fear in Shell’s scent. Only desire, need, pain and pleasure (this one could be the poster child for the term “Masochist” is there’s ever been one), and an earnest wish to please. 

 

Even when the demon struck him harder, the tails of the car wrapping around his thighs or even dipping just a bit between his slightly parted cheeks to nip at the exquisitely tender flesh of his crease, Shell’s demeanor didn’t change, except that his cries grew louder when the pain was more intense. 

 

Finally losing interest in flogging Eric’s pretty toy when his reactions remained the same, Sebastian set the multi-strand whip aside and glided to the wall again. Eric wanted him to give his pet something he himself had been unable to do. Shell would be riding the endorphins triggered by the intense flogging, so perhaps it was time to step things up a bit. Grinning an unholy grin, he lowered the front of the horse and raised the back, elevating Shell’s backside higher in the air. Then, leaning down, he also adjusted the height of the knee-rests, forcing Shell’s knees farther apart and lifting his hips further into the air, canting them up obscenely so that his dark red, bound and leaking arousal swung between his thighs, his cheeks spread even farther apart, and his back arched almost painfully to accommodate the new position.

 

“You’ve never been to school, have you? No, of course not. You were kept at home with a string of tutors. Far too good to be allowed to mix with the unwashed masses, hm? Pretty little pampered prince,” teased the demon. Shell’s face and ears flushed.

 

“I...yes….but I’m going to change all that,” he protested. “I’m going to create schools for all children, so that everyone can learn, and no one will be better than anyone else!”

 

“A pretty thought, and I wish you luck with it, but not quite the point at the moment. Do you know how naughty little boys are punished in school in the world I came here from?”

 

“I...no?” said Shell, looking confused. Sebastian reached out and slowly drew a slender cane down off the wall. “Naughty little boys are bent over so that their bottoms are well on display, just like this. Sometimes even in front of their class or the entire student body. The extreme stretch of their bodies pulls the skins of their backsides quite tight so that there’s little give in that soft flesh. I wonder how old you’ll have to get, Master Overlord, before you stop resembling one of those cute little boys? I know it’s not today.” He flexed the cane in his hands, letting Shell see it. His gleaming topaz eyes widened a little, lips parting as he licked them. “Naughty boys get the cane, and I think it’s a perfect way to punish this bad little boy too. Shell whimpered softly, almost eagerly.

 

“Will it hurt?” he whispered. The demon leaned down to breathe into his ear.

 

“Terribly,” he purred. 

 

Shell gulped in air and gave a tiny nod, his eyes still wet with tears. Sebastian moved to stand behind him again. The view was, admittedly, enticing. His backside raised and spread like this, the demon could see the small, furled opening between his round cheeks. Absently, he pressed the heel of his hand to the shocking hardness between his own thighs. He ignored it for the present, stood at Shell’s hip, a foot or so away, and laid the cane against both quivering cheeks.

 

Caning is an art, if one strives to do it correctly. Most don’t; instead simply flailing away at their target so that the tip digs brutally into the outside buttock, lacerating the flesh and leaving the near one merely deeply bruised. It’s the way he’d witnessed schoolmaster cane schoolboys many times, starved between souls, soaking up the agony of the fresh young things trapped helplessly under a sadist’s thumb. He himself had always found the practice beyond crude. Not that he’d cared one way or another what became of the human boys. Humans were born, they lived for a certain amount of time, and then they died. Occasionally one was interesting, but most were not. Still, knowing his own depraved tastes, the demon had long ago learned the  _ correct  _ way to wield a cane.

 

It is all in the wrist, elbow, shoulder and hips. Holding his elbow tucked into his waist, he drew his hand back, turning his hip out. Pivoting on one foot, he used the muscles of his shoulder to rotate his elbow, momentum of shoulder, hip and arm combining to bring the cane whistling down to land with a meaty  _ thwack _ across the center of Shell’s upturned ass. The vampire was silent for a few seconds. A skilled caning always felt this way. Nothing at all but the sense of impact for the first moment or two, and then….

 

Shell howled in agony as a deep red weal appeared as if by magic across both cheeks, indented in the center so that it resembled a tiny train track across his backside. Grinning triumphantly, Sebastian did it again. And again. Over and over until the vampires ass and the very tops of his thighs were deeply marked with perfectly even tramlines from the crest of his cheeks on down to where they stopped, a few inches below the crease where his cheeks met his thighs. Shell was sobbing helplessly, letting out a pained squeal every time the cane dug into his defenseless bottom.

 

“P-please, sir,” he sobbed, “nuh-no more! It hurts, it hurts so bad, pl….please stuh-stop! I can’t! Oh...oh, no, no, no, not again, I….AHHH!”

 

Sebastian glanced over his shoulder at Eric, who had moved closer, sitting on the large chair in the center of the room, leaning forwards on one elbow to watch closely. The demon raised an eyebrow in question.

 

“He knows his safety word,” said Eric. ”If he really wanted you to stop, he’d use it.”

 

Spinning on his heel, Sebastian turned back to Shell, He tapped sharply on the back of one thigh to get the vampire’s attention. Shell turned his head to look at him through eyes blurred by pain. 

 

“I’ll tell you what,” said Sebastian indifferently. “I’ll give you a chance to show me what you can do with that pretty mouth, and if you do a good job, I won’t cane you anymore. But if you cut me with a fang or fail to impress me, I’ll beat you with this until I flay the skin from your backside.” It was of little concern either way. With Sebastian’s blood flowing through his veins, Shell would be healing any injury short of decapitation for the next few weeks at least.

 

“Ye-yes….oh please….I….I’ll be good,” hiccupped Shell.

 

Sebastian stepped in front of him and, fisting a hand in his tousled, sweat-dampened curls, tugged his head up sharply. Shell whimpered and let his mouth fall open like a hungry baby bird’s. Growling quietly in his chest, the demon reached down and freed his cock from his trousers. Slowly, almost teasingly, he fed it into Shell’s eager mouth, chuckling at the way the vampire craned his neck forwards to try and reach for him. Wet lips closed around the head and suckled carefully, mindful of the sharp fangs protruding from Shell’s gums. Sebastian stifled a gasp, turning it into a low hum, and slid his length into the hot suction of the younger creature’s mouth. Shell took him well, lapping with his tongue at the underside of his cock, dropping his jaw and opening his throat to let the broad head slide past the back of his mouth and into his throat. Even as he began to choke a little, Sebastian held him fast by his hair, rocking his hips, gently fucking the vampire’s throat. Despite gagging a little, Shell moaned and sucked harder, valiantly breathing through his nose as best he could and taking everything the demon had to give him. Saliva pooled at the corners of his mouth and trickled down the sides of his chin. His cheeks were flushed with humiliation and hunger. Beneath his upthrust hips, his bound cock twitched and drooled on the black leather of the padded horse. Eager little noises whined deep in his throat. When he swallowed desperately around the intrusion in this throat, the muscles massaged Sebastian’s cock with delicious, tight friction. Tears poured down his face. His chest heaved with both his efforts to breathe more easily and his crying from the demon’s harsh caning. The sharp, metallic tang of blood from a few of the more brutal slashes scented the air. Shell trembled and strained, and still….still it was the best oral service the demon had received in all his very long memory. It would have been so easy to let himself go and release down the vampire’s eager throat. 

 

But that wasn’t what he wanted. A bit reluctantly, he forced Shell’s head back and withdrew, tucking himself back into his pants. Shell whimpered in apprehension.

 

“I...I can do better, Sir,” he whispered hoarsely, his voice absolutely  _ ruined. _ “Please! Please give me another cha…”

 

“Hush. You did well. Almost too well,” said Sebastian. Behind him, Eric snickered a little.

 

“His mouth’s amazing isn’t it?” Sebastian glanced back at him to find the half-vampire slowly rubbing the palm of his hand up and down the swelling bulge visible inside his pants. They shared a commiserating look for a moment.

 

“Indeed,” agreed the demon. “But I could use your help for this next bit, if you’re willing.”

 

“Sure,” said Eric, standing up. “But only if you promise to show me how to use that cane the way you did. I think I could come pretty close to giving him what he needs when he’s really stressed with that, if I could do it the way you did.”

 

“No problem at all, my good sir,” agreed Sebastian easily, for the first time hoping he might be allowed a few more days in the world. Perhaps he could convince his current contract that, having made contact with the masterminds behind the overthrow of the established regime in this world, he was now uniquely situated to hone in on and eliminate the remaining threats to peace. Almost immediately, he gives himself and internal headshake. Imagine, such a thing mattering to him in the least. Still, unlike in the place from which he’d come, the vampires here had souls, and if Shell and Eric and their allies had enemies, he’d be able to cross the border between world not only fed, but sated for once. Setting that aside for the moment, he went to the wall and took down several lengths of rope.

 

“Now,” he said, speaking to Eric and ignoring the vampire belted and cuffed to the spanking horse, which was an obvious source of frustration to Shell, although he didn't complain. “I’m going to use these, and I’m going to require an assistant. All I really need is for you to be able to follow my directions to the letter, because this kind of binding is rather complex, and the work has to be accurate.”

 

“I can do that,” said Eric, looking intrigued.

 

“Excellent. Bring him here to me, please, and take off all the cuffs and things he’s wearing except for the nipple clamps and cock ring, if you don’t mind.”

 

Silently, Eric moved to Shell’s side, unbuckling the waist belt, then kneeling down to gently remove the wrist and ankle cuffs, as well as their matching collar. As he did, he softly chafed Shell’s hands and feet, making sure he could feel them, murmuring softly to him in a tone he probably assumed Sebastian couldn’t hear. He could, of course, but wasn’t the least bothered by Eric’s gentle praise and encouragement, his questions as to how Shell was doing, and especially not the soft, dreamy response that the young vampire was fine. More than fine. As he laid out the ropes, checking their various lengths, his satisfied smile that Shell was eager to continue. Eric led him over to the demon where he crouched under the same metal hook he’d used earlier, laying out a series of ropes in stripes along the floor.

 

“Lie down here, on top of these ropes,” he ordered Shell, “with this top one right across your chest, just under the collar bones.”

 

Shell obeyed quickly, kneeling and then stretching out atop the ropes with the ease and grace of which only a preternatural creature would be capable.

 

“Is...this all right, Sir?” he asked softly, looking up at the demon from under his thick, dark eyelashes.

 

“That’s perfect. Now Shell, the only thing I need from you now is for you to completely relax. I’m going to be using these ropes and several more to bind you in a very complex way. I’ll need to move parts of you, and I’ll need you to relax your body and just let me. This may get a little bit boring for you, as it’s a bit of a process, but I think you’ll like the end result.”

 

“I will, Sir,” said Shell, sounding a little bit drowsy. Now that the pains of his body were dying down, he’d be feeling the endorphins produced by the stressors of his beatings filling his bloodstream, making him feel sleepy and content. Well, he could enjoy it for a while. 

 

Slowly and meticulously, Sebastian used the ropes to weave a web around Shell’s body, with Eric lifting or moving a limb when directed. The ropes crossed and wove about the vampire’s body, knotted in multiple places where they crossed, each knot carefully calculated to put pressure on a specific point but never to cut off circulation. It was a lengthy process, but one which resulted in a work of art crafted around Sell’s body, leaving him completely helpless and unable to move his body or limbs save perhaps to flop about like a landed fish if he were to choose to fight it. He didn’t. He lay compliant and completely submissive, practically purring when Eric stroked his fingers over an exposed bit of skin. The demon, acutely in tune with the passage of time, knew that it had taken him close to two hours to bind Shell’s entire body in an intricate and supportive cocoon of decorative knots and rope work. 

 

“Now, do you see that one larger knot at his back, just below his shoulder blades that has most of the other ropes leading off it?”

 

“This one here,” asked Eric, pointing.

 

“Yes, exactly. Now, I’m going to lift him, and when I do, I want you to hook that knot  _ only _ over the hook above us. Make sure none of the lines are caught by it, or his weight will pull against them and may put pressure on one of the other knots that will cut off his circulation or put too much pressure on a nerve cluster somewhere else,” instructed Sebastian warningly.

 

“I understand,” said Eric, who clearly didn’t really, but took the demon’s word for it. Their willingness to obey him would have been beyond foolish were the demon not bound by the surprisingly clever contract Eric has negotiated for his lover. 

 

The half-vampire’s eyebrows rose a little in surprise when Sebastian lifted Shell’s body in his arms with no visible sign of strain, but he set it aside in favor of looking after his lover’s safety, and took great care to work the hook under the knot Sebastian had indicated, making sure no other ropes were caught by it. Slowly and carefully, eyeing the rope net he’d woven and tied around Shell’s body for any sign that he’d miscalculated a pressure point, Sebastian slowly let more and more of his weight hang from the hook, until at last only the steel was supporting Shell’s weight and he was hanging, suspended, in midair, held up by the chain and hook and the bindings of his body. The ropes dug deeply into his flesh. His arms were bound behind his back, each hand clasping the opposite elbow. His legs were bent at the knee, calves and ankles bound to the backs of his thighs. Diamond shaped openings in the rope framed his clamped nipples and groin.After he was suspended, Sebastian walked over and picked up one of the soft cloths stowed beside the bed in one corner. Returning with it, he wrapped it around Shell’s forehead, then encircled it with one last rope, tying it back behind him to one of the ropes at his back so that it supported his head, keeping it lifted enough that he could look Shell in the eye, and so that his mouth was perfectly situated for a repeat of his earlier oral demonstration. The chain was a bit too short for this, of course, so Sebastian went to the crank on the wall and lowered the hook until Shell’s body dangled off the floor at about waist height. All the while this was happening, the ropes were digging harder and harder into Shell’s flesh, With each turn of the crank, he jerked a bit as he dropped a few inches. He gasped and cried out in fear as he felt himself drop, but Eric stood beside him, crooning softly to him that he was safe, that he wouldn’t let him fall.

 

Shell squirmed a bit, then looked at Sebastian in confusion. The demon grinned at him crookedly and reached down to pet the softness of his hair.

 

“I...I’m….I don’t understand,” he confessed softly.

 

“What is it you don’t understand?”

 

“It’s….I mean, I understand  _ bondage. _ I like it. And this is...wow. But...I don’t understand how this is supposed to be intense, or….or any kind of ‘punishment’. Unless it’s  _ supposed  _ to just be arousing, in which case I absolutely understand….” Sebastian’s grin widened.

 

“Just give it a minute,” he said casually, strolling over to the wall to take down a small buggy whip, looking it over as he ran his fingers over it. Yes, it would do nicely. The lash was short, and very thin. Perfect for reaching the parts of Shell’s flesh that weren’t protected by the ropes or intricate knots. For a moment, Shell’s expression said that  _ now  _ he got it, but when Sebastian didn’t approach him with the whip, he just looked confused again. 

 

However, after a few more moments, he frowned a little. His lips parted and he let out a soft whine. He tried to shift inside the ropes, but he couldn’t.

 

“Oh….”

 

“Beginning to understand now?” asked the demon. Shell panted quietly through his open mouth.

 

“It….it hurts,” he whispered.

 

And that was the beauty of kinbaku. Not a part of Shell’s back side, from the top of his shoulders to his legs, were in any pain at all, save for possibly his knees and thighs where the muscles were likely burning a little from the enforced stretch in them, although he doubted it, Shell being a vampire. But the underside of his body, the parts of him taking all his weight against a web of ropes thinner than a man’s finger? Each one of those ropes would now be digging into Shell’s flesh, and although his weight was evenly distributed and he was in no danger of either falling or losing circulation, those ropes were digging deeply into his flesh where they held him above the floor, and the pressure was  _ intense _ . 

 

“This is the last part of your punishment, pretty little boy. You’ve been naughty, haven’t you? You’ve tied your Master’s hands. You’ve kept from him the information he needed to keep you safe and healthy, and you’ve refused to take care of yourself. Well, now it’s utterly beyond your control.” And, to illustrate just how helpless Shell was, the demon placed a hand on his shoulder and shoved. It set the bound and suspended Overlord spinning on the chain that held him up. Shell screamed in terror as the room started to spin around him in dizzying and disorienting fashion. There was nothing he could do to stop it! 

 

Abruptly, hands grabbed him and the spinning stopped. Hot tears dripped on the floor. He understood completely now. He’s been spinning out of control for some time, and much worse than that, he’s been keeping it to himself. He cried out in shock as the braided cracker of the buggy whip bit into an exposed section of his ass. Sebastian stood back and lashed the whip at virtually every inch of exposed skin. Although the whip wasn’t designed to do more than sting, with his preternatural strength behind it, he was able to bite tiny wounds into the pale flesh. Shell was sobbing again in moments, with the bite of the whip and the intense pressure of the bondage….and his helplessness and self-recriminations combined. Oh, it was agony. He cried and begged for mercy, but mostly for forgiveness. It seemed to go on forever and ever. He could feel the tiny spots of damp on his skin, but he considered them just, and longed for more of them. Oh, he deserved to be punished, but the pain was  _ incandescent. _

 

“Enough, I think,” murmured Eric softly to Sebastian, his heart aching at Shell’s sorrow. Bowing his head once in acquiescence, the demon placed the whip back on the wall. He returned and knelt down in front of Shell’s face, wiping away the tears from his face. With his tongue. 

 

“Do you understand now, little Lord?” he asked softly.

 

“Yuh...yes,” wailed Shell. 

 

“Good. You’re a good boy, Shell Overlord. You have a good man who loves you enough to be willing to do  _ anything  _ to help you. All you have to do is let him. Will you do that?”

 

“I promise,” sobbed Shell. He could feel other hands on him, fingers delicately stroking the exposed sections of his skin that bulged through the tight weaving of the ropes. He’d know Eric’s touch anywhere, and longed to lean into it, but he couldn’t move. Suddenly, he gasped when he felt Sebastian’s fingers at the clamps attached to his numbed nipples, twisting at the screws. The clamps were something Eric hadn’t used on him yet, this basement space being relatively new. He sighed in relief as they began to loosen, gulping in breaths to get himself under control. For just a heartbeat or two there  _ was _ relief as the clamps dropped away. Then his eyes widened and he shrieked as bloodflow began to return to his nipples and the agony of it made itself known. Sebastian chuckled, and rubbed them softly with his sharp-tipped fingers. The intense pain and exquisite sensitivity seemed connected directly down his spine and right to his genitals. His cock, which had softened just a little, though not a great deal due to the constriction of the cock ring, sprang back to attention. As the agony slowly lessened, Shell moaned at the mix of pleasure and pain. The demon pinched the swollen, angry red little nubs with the tips of his nails to prolong the sensation. He leaned in and sucked a cry from Shell’s lips with a searing kiss.

 

“I said you were a good boy, did I not?” he asked with a smirk. Shell, still breathless from the flood of sensation, nodded wordlessly. “And do you remember what I said happened to good boys after they’d been punished?” The vampire hesitated a moment, then nodded again. Sebastian glanced up at Eric. “Have you anything that can be used as lubricant?” Eric laughed.

 

“Unscented and scented oils, healing salve, some cooling gel that was developed for sore muscles by some vampire scientist….”

 

“Cooling, eh? Have you tried it yet?”

 

“Oh yeah. Shell says it tingles,” grinned the half-vampire, turning to walk to a small cabinet. He brought back a small tube and handed it to Sebastian, who perused the label. The smirk on his face widened into an evil grin. “Just….well, I’ve only used it once because it pretty much affects the...er….user just as much.”

 

“That won’t be a problem,” muttered Sebastian, unscrewing the cap as he strolled around behind his helplessly bound victim. The scent of Shell on the back of his tongue was driving him nearly into a frenzy. A little pain of his own would be just the thing to make it all perfect, even if the tube did contain mostly aloe vera gel with just a touch of peppermint oil. 

 

Most of the lesser marks on Shell’s body had already faded, even the worst ones fading from dark bruising to red marks. He leaned down between the spread thighs and again licked away the small pinpricks of blood left over from the healing whip marks. Shell gasped and shivered. Taking a handful of one perfectly rounded cheek and digging his nails in a little, the demon spread Shell open further, looking down at the tightly furled opening between his cheeks. He squeezed out a small line of the gel onto his other forefinger, brushing the tip of it against Shell’s pretty little pink hole, as perfect and pristine as a virgin’s. Shell whimpered and tried to squirm, but it made the ropes supporting him dig in deeper, so he choked on the sound and stopped.

 

“That’s right, little slave. All you can do is lie there and be used. Don’t worry, I’ll make you feel good,” purred Sebastian. Then he shoved his slicked finger all the way inside the vampire with no warning. Shell cried out sharply, his hips working helplessly despite whatever pain it may have caused.

 

“Just make sure he’s nice and wet,” said Eric. “You don’t have to stretch him.”

 

“Oh, I remember,” growled the demon softly. He twisted his finger a couple of times, waiting for the sensation of the gel to take effect. Watching intently, he reached down with his free hand and unfastened his trousers, pulling his cock free. Shell stiffened and whined softly in his chest. Yes, there it was. Salivating with anticipation, his canines elongating in his mouth, the demon nestled the head of his cock against Shell’s tight, wet little pucker. “Get in front of him and feed him your cock,” he snarled at Eric. His eyes flared bright with the red fires of hell. Eric couldn’t even think to protest being ordered about. He scrambled into position. Besides, it wasn’t a difficult order to follow. Shell looked to pretty and debauched, tears staining his face, his pretty cock straining uselessly between his bound and spread thighs. He’d been hard practically the whole time. 

 

Shell opened his mouth obediently, but Eric only placed the head of his cock on his lover’s tongue and waited. Sebastian smirked and winked at him over Shell’s bound form. His hands settled on the vampire’s hips. 

 

And he shoved. Shell shrieked, and Erik jammed his own cock down his lover’s throat. Sebastian hissed through his teeth at both the exquisite tightness of Shell’s body and the tingling, small burn of the ointment he’d used to ease the way. Brutally, he fucked into the helpless body while Eric held Shell’s head and used his mouth almost as roughly. For the first few seconds, Shell screamed in pain at being opened so rudely, but in next to no time he was moaning desperately around Eric’s cock, sucking eagerly and far too overwhelmed with pleasure to even care that he was drooling down his own chin as he choked on his Master’s cock. Behind him, Sebastian fucked into him like he’d fuck his way  _ through  _ and out the other side. Every thrust both ached at hit him in just the right spot. He could no longer discern between pain and pleasure.

 

Grinning toothily, the demon let just a little of his power slip. The power he could use to turn a proper society dinner party into a filthy, debauched orgiastic frenzy. The power to loosen even the most devout nun’s thighs if he chose. Aiming all of it at Shell. He threw his head back and fed. Shell’s need and pain filled him, pouring power into his starved body. Snarling through his teeth, he hissed in a guttural voice for Eric to release Shell’s cock ring. Shell sobbed gratefully. Sebastian’s power was overwhelming. All his skin was alive with pleasure and frantic need. Almost before the stip of leather hit the floor he was coming, screaming around Eric’s cock in his throat. Eric cried out in fear and bliss, spilling down his throat.

 

But they were both still hard. Whipping them back into a frenzy took no more than a thought. Sebastian reveled in the rush of their blind lust, soaking it up, filling his drained power reserves. He slammed his hips against Shell’s plush little ass, his fingernails digging half-moon scores into the pale flesh. A few minutes later, when they both came again and he’d drunk all their pleasure down, savored the pain of Eric’s cock bruising Shell’s throat and the vampire’s tightness chafing his Master’s cock, he threw his head back and roared his pleasure as he released inside the vampire’s body. Eric collapsed onto his back on the floor. Sebastian stayed where he was, milking the last few drops of pleasure from Shell’s limp body.

 

Slowly, he pulled out, enjoying the vampire’s soft whimper as well as the filthy sight of his own seed leaking from Shell’s abused hole. Taking out his handkerchief, he cleaned himself and tucked his sated cock away, tucking it back into his pants and smoothing the wrinkles out of his trousers. Eric leaned up on his elbows, looking a little dazed.

 

“Are you well, my friend?”

 

“Y-yeah, I think so. I just feel sort of like I’ve had marathon sex a dozen times or so. But yeah. I’m fine. Amazing, really. How...how in hell did you do that?”

 

“What,” smiled Sebastian smugly. “You don’t think a demon of lust would have powers to match?”

 

“Shit,” said Eric, shaking his head with a weak smile. “Shell, love, are you okay?”

 

“Mmhm,” said Shell dreamily.

 

“He may be all right now, but we still have to take him down, and it must be done carefully. When we untie the ropes, it will have to be done in the correct order, and it's going to hurt him much like the nipple clamps when bloodflow returns to his limbs. I’ll need your help again, to take care of him.”

 

“The bed, then,” said Eric. Together, the lifted Shell off the hook and carried him gently over to the bed, laying him down on his belly. Together, with Sebastian instructing Eric, they untied him. Shell cried when sensation returned to his body and limbs where the ropes had been supporting him, but Eric petted him and shushed him and whispered in his ear how beautiful he was and how perfect, what a good boy he’d been, and how much he loved him. It took nearly an hour, but eventually the vampire was cuddled up in bed, wrapped in a blanket and tucked against Eric’s shoulder.

 

Then Sebastian found himself doing something he’s never done before in all his many years of life. Bringing his hand to his mouth, he nicked a finger with one sharp fang and offered it to Shell, who sucked it between his lips eagerly. The wound closed in seconds, for the demon was back to full power as well, but it was more than enough to heal Shell’s body and boost his energy.

 

“If you still want me to, I’ll stay for a day or so and teach you how to use a few of the implements you have here so that you really can give him what he needs without having to have a vampire’s full strength,” he said calmly, brushing away the part of him that actually hoped the two would say yes. When Eric did, and Shell nodded eagerly, he his his pleasure behind a gracious nod, and continued. “It will give me time to let you help me make arrangements to leave a sizeable deposit of my blood with your bank. No one ever need know it isn’t human, and you should only need about a quarter of a bag every couple of months to stay at full strength. Consider it my donation to your cause, in exchange for the best meal I’ve had in years.”

 

“Th...thank you, Sir,” whispered Shell, looking awed. “That’s...very generous of you.”

 

“And if you should happen to know of any of your kind who are out there fighting you, or refusing to comply with letting their ‘cattle’ go free, I’d be more than pleased to help out on that front as well. It is my assignment, after all.”

 

“I can help you with that,” said Eric, a dark fury in his eyes that made Sebastian wonder once again what stories this man really had to tell.

 

“Well then” said Sebastian, leaning back against one of the posts of the bed, “until my own ‘master’ calls me home, I’ll wager you we can make one hell of a dent in your problems.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinbaku, which many people call Shibari, is very intricate and beautiful. However, DO NOT suspend your partner or allow yourself to be suspended by the body's full weight unless you have trained under a master at the art. It is VERY dangerous! One misplaced coil or twist of rope, or knot, can result in permanent loss of sensation or nerve damage. Also loss of consciousness. It is not a game.
> 
> Also, when you take someone down, you need the same level of skill. The knots and ropes must be undone in a specific order. It also HURTS. The sub will need a lot of massage and rubbing and careful manipulation of their limbs. Don't expect them to stand. 
> 
> Basically when it comes to anything new, learn your shit my loves. Research, ask questions (my box is always open), watch demos, join a local group or club. Putting your partner in the hospital is not fun. Communicate. Even if you're the sub, you always have the ultimate right to say no. Safewords are NOT for pussies.


End file.
